TrueCrypt for less confidential data and to serve as an encrypted “container” for data. I make these in sizes of 4gigs each so that I can back up quickly to USB External hard drives and/or 8 gig flash drives that are now so inexpensive.

Picasa and PicasaWeb, as well as Flickr, to backup images. I’m migrating content to PicasaWeb since I have tons of room there (11 gigs for $20 a year).

While there are several tools on the Linux side, KGPG is the easiest to get working (I’ve worked on Gnome and KDE graphical user interfaces to Linux). As mentioned earlier, an excellent tool to use for encryption includes KGPG. Installing KGPG is straightforward, especially on Debian Linux distributions such as Edubuntu, SimplyMepis, and others. You can use the built-in, graphical Synaptic to get the program or at the command line, use Apt-Get (e.g. “apt-get install kgpg”).

KGPG is a nice front-end to GPG, which is already installed on your Linux system. An easy start tutorial is available online. Unbelievably, KGPG is easier to get going than the MacGPG Tools mentioned earlier!

On the Macintosh, there are several privacy tools you can use. While the Personal version of the Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP for short, (which is free but lacks disk encryption after the 30-day trial expires) is the easiest to use, there is another free, open source alternative. This alternative is a combination of FOSS tools.

While installation of these tools is straightforward, you will have to spend about an hour puzzling over the documentation to see how they all work together. Unlike Windows Privacy Tools (WinPT), there is no one unifying installer. As such, you are left trying to make all the pieces work together.

You will need to install 5 different tools on your computer. I recommend creating a new folder on your desktop, then copying the files to that folder.

As you might guess, figuring out how all these tools work together can be difficult. In reality, the process is much easier than one would think. The most difficult part of the process is actually setting up your public and private key. You may be forced to work at the command line. While there is help at the command line (just type “help” and press RETURN), you will have to read through the directions.

I have successfully encrypted emails and specific zipped files with the Mac privacy tools above, then unencrypted them with privacy tools on other platforms (e.g. WinPT on Windows or KGPG on Linux). This enables you to enjoy cross-platform security.

Lose a laptop, and your troubles could just be beginning! Why? Confidential data. Re-discovering Windows XP solution, I stumbled across GPG4Windows, which is an excellent, easy way to encrypt individual files, emails, and confidential information.

Gpg4win is a installer package for Windows (2000/XP/2003/Vista) with computer programs and handbooks for EMail and file encryption. Both relevant cryptography standards are supported, OpenPGP and S/MIME (the latter is in progress and currently works with GnuPG2 and Claws Mail). Gpg4win and the software included with Gpg4win are Free Software.

Now, some time ago, I also wrote about TrueCrypt…Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. What I didn’t share is that TrueCrypt can be used to encrypt your entire laptop, as shared below:

I have been running TrueCrypt (www.truecrypt.org) on my laptop for about a year now and have not had a single problem with it. Every time I turn on my computer, I have to type in an encryption key (aka password) before it will boot into Windows. This is the only inconvenience for the end user that I am aware of.

We are actually looking at deploying this for all of our laptops here at [regional service center name]. We will have to keep all of the Rescue CDs in case a password is forgotten, but that shouldn’t happen seeing as we will be documenting our passwords (within an encrypted file of course). We will probably turn all CDs into ISO files and just store them on a server.

Even if you don’t encrypt your entire laptop’s hard drive as described above, you should definitely consider creating an encrypted volume. Surely you can spare 4-5 gigs for encryption of confidential documents? And, it’s pretty easy to backup the volumes to external hard drives and then open them on a different computer–provided you install TrueCrypt (it’s available in a portable configuration) and remember your passcode.

If such security seems excessive to you, ask yourself a simple question–Are you sure you’d want other folks to see what’s in those work-related (or even personal stuff like health) data files? To have unrestricted access to confidential data?

It is not a matter of if your laptop or desktop or phone or camera will crash, but really a matter of…..

If your answer is something like almost never or it is a fleeting thought, or when it happens you will scream, then you are among the majority of us.

If however, you work for the CIA or a financial institution or a government agency, then you never think of it because someone else has already made those plans and your computer is locked down and your use is very rigid and everything you do is backed up.Read more

Carla Arena wrote in response:

My husband has been pushing me, the family to go digital. Funny thing is that he’s not that into technology, and I’m around it every single day! I’m getting everything from data in CDs to flash drives. All the music CDs have been ripped, saved to an external HD, on the computer and synched to iTunes. Data is the problem. I spent hours sorting through what was worth keeping, organizing content areas in folders. then, photo time.

My response:

I’ve used 7zip compression to compress all files–anything and everything–that I’m not going to need again right away (95% of what I have) and saved it on multiple external drives and burned 1 set to DVD. I keep it all confidential data encrypted using TrueCrypt container files. It’s easy to do (really) and I carry the encrypted containers–bearing my most important documents–on flash drives. I feel so much better now that I do have backups of my most critical documents, portable and encrypted. For really confidential stuff, I encrypt with GPG and then put those inside of TrueCrypt and save those online. If the hard drive on any of my computers died, I’d be OK–and so would family.

For photos and videos, I have 11 gigs of storage on PicasaWeb and GoogleVideo where I store all my image/video content. I also backup everything to Flickr. Any new photo is automatically sent to both (it’s easy with email uploading or the Flickr/PicasaWeb Uploaders that are available cross-platform…or just use Flock, which has it built-in).

I also keep documents I need to use on GoogleDocs–such as resume, letter of interest for a job application, sample work contracts, etc.–accessible online and make a backup copy. Nothing confidential is stored online via GoogleDocs.

My entire article library–everything I’ve written for publication–now appears online in multiple places, so I don’t have to worry about that.

How about you? How do you make sense of the chaos of gigabyte storage devices?

Please, before you read any further, I encourage you to unsubscribe to Angela Maiers, Drezac’s blogs for perpetuating this 7 things about me meme.

(just joking)

So, here we go…to make this quick and easy, I flipped through my Flickr photos to find stuff about my long lost past. Since I’ve done this kind of meme before, I tried to share a little bit about what each photo represents. I hope it worked!

1. Writing on the Edge – I was named after my grandfather, Miguel (shown above), who happened to be a politician (actually, mayor of the town) in Santiago, Panama. Apparently, his brother was a political writer who liked to rabble-rouse. My mother says that my writing talent comes from her side of the family, although it skipped her (she’s a whiz in math, though). It turns out that writing on the edge–that is, writing that can get you fired or thought of as unpopular–is hereditary. Who knew?

2. I love to Fish. Since I grew up in the Republic of Panama, I spent my weekends at the beach. It was wonderful and sometimes, when I give myself a moment to reflect, a part of me cries for what is no more. While I seldom caught anything while fishing on the beach, I did have fun chasing the iguanas that inhabit the driftwood (tree trunks with root systems washed ashore so you have an idea of the size) and I can feel the water lapping at my toes.

3. I love Westerns. Like a lot of kids, I grew up wearing cowboy boots, packing a six-shooter, and the first thing I put on in the morning was my cowboy hat (although it’s tucked under my arm in the photo above), and knew how to ride a horse by the time I was 5 years old…all this while living in Panama. It was destiny I would move to Texas at age 10, but once here, I’d outgrown my penchant for dressing as a cowboy. Instead, Louis L’Amour and Max Brand became my saddle partners.

4. Mud Slinger. When I was 5-8 years old (I forget now), a terrible storm ripped up the biggest tree I’d ever seen in the Canal Zone (Panama)–which was next to my house there–and the roots were incredible to see. Before the tree could be sliced up and hauled away, there were ample mud clots and I tossed mud balls (like snowballs) at my enemies, older boys who lived up the street. We had a lot of fun until one mud ball whacked me in the right eye, knocking me out…about the same time that my dad, a Canal Zone police officer came home from work. That was the end of my mud-slinging.

5. Fifth Grade Love. I’m not sure why–probably ’cause she was sweet–but I had a crush on my fifth grade teacher. You can see me to the far left of the photo on my knees. I’ve always been a bit shy…I recently found Colegio St. Mary’s (Or St Mary’s Catholic School) group on Facebook and I’m trying to track down old classmates pictured above. It’s amazing what can 30 years later with technology…like a family slowly coming back together for a reunion after years of separation.

6. Culture Shock. When I first moved to Texas, I was 10 years old going on 11 and I suffered culture shock. I had no clue what life was like, what the kids were like, and had never been exposed to the raw information of a television newscast (e.g. murders per day). I spent my first night huddled under my covers listening to some murderer breaking into my bedroom window. It turned out to be some bushes next to the air conditioning unit. Being a well-prepared Panamanian boy, I whipped out my machete and those bushes were history. I didn’t settle into Texas until I was in college…I wish I’d known what the heck culture shock was earlier.

7. Not a clue. One of the truly embarassing moments of my life–so I thought back then–was having to go to a military ball when was in high school JROTC. I’d never been to a formal dance before (it was my freshman year), and I was horribly shy. I ended up going on a blind date with the young lady above (Julie Furr–wow, she’s on Facebook–was her name as I recall…frightening) and in retrospect, I feel sorry for her. I’m sure that I missed opportunities for entertaining her as she should have been (e.g. witty conversation), not to mention stepping on her feet. So, I offer my apologies to Julie if she ever sees this post and a picture she probably wished had never been taken (my kids laughed at me, BTW, just so you’ll know the shame I had to suffer…”Dad, why did you wear those glasses?” (laugh)).

Well, that was easier than I thought! Of course, it’s always easy to make a fool of oneself!! I’m going to randomly tag some of the people who I see on twitter.

The goal of this collaboration is to 1) encourage the integration of technology in student writing, 2) increase students’ writing capabilities, and 3) foster teacher interest in The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, a nationally recognized Boston-based year-long language arts program dedicated to strengthening the character development and literacy skills of students.

The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum is a globally acclaimed year-long language arts program in residence at Northeastern University that targets sixth and ninth grade students and honors the life of Max Warburg, a courageous 11 year old who died of leukemia in 1991. The Curriculum is also a founding partner in the Stony Brook Initiative, a unique and evolving community partnership among Northeastern University and its neighbors in Roxbury, Mission Hill, the Fenway, and the South End. Nearly 100% of Boston Public School sixth gradeclassrooms participate in the Curriculum, and the ninth grade program (initiated in 2006) continues to expand each year.

Inspired by Max’s story, participants write personal essays that celebrate acts of moral courage in their own lives, in the lives of those around them, and in their communities. The program assists students to connect to literature and is dedicated to strengthening character development and literacy skills. Written into the Massachusetts state learning standards for literacy, the Curriculum has positively impacted the lives of more than 75,000 students since its inception. A sample teacher’s guide will also be available.

As a result of this collaboration and with guidance from the Curriculum, Cambium has developed a national essay competition for middle school students on the topic “The Courage in My Community.” This competition is designed to engage middle school students in a deeper understanding of the concept of courage in their community and to integrate the use of technology in the writing process with the recently released Kurzweil 3000-Windows Version 11software, a suite of tools designed to assist the most at-risk student populations inmeeting the academic challenges of reading, writing, and higher order thinking.

The competition will open at: http://www.courageinmycommunity.com, on October 13, 2008. Schools can start uploading essay submissions from January 1-February 15, 2009. A panel of judges coordinated across the country will review each essay and select up to twenty-five (25) winning essays as semi-finalists to be judged in a final event by authors, members of the community, journalists, and educators in Boston, Massachusetts on March 5, 2009. The final judging will coincide with the annual Max Warburg Courage Curriculum “Courage in My Life” Essay Judging and will include judges from this program.

One winner will be announced in late March and honored in his/her home community at a luncheon and press conference on a date to be determined. The winning participant’s school will receive a Kurzweil 3000 Site License with a full-day implementation workshop, in addition to one half day of professional development training in the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum with program founder Stephanie Warburg and program director Elizabeth Evans, along with a complete set of curriculum books, the teacher’s guide, and a video.

Last week, or maybe the week before that, one of the teacher specialists in Social Studies called me up and asked, “Do you have any equipment to convert slides to digital format?”“What do you mean, slides?” I asked back.“The old slides that go in a slide projector,” he replied.

For $20, Costco will transfer two hours of VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, Hi-8, Digital 8, 8mm videotape, MiniDV, or Betamax tape to DVD. Once you have the DVD in hand, you just save the files to your computer’s hard drive (assuming your computer can read DVDs).

Costco also has a service that transfers 200 feet of 8mm, Super 8, 16mm movie reels to DVD for $20 and another that scans 50 slides to create digital photographs for $20.

[You’ll have to call CostCo and speak to them since the service isn’t listed on their web site…other comments include one from The Photo Archival folks, who can do the conversion but for 50 slides, it’s about $50].

You’ll have to decide if $20-$50 isn’t that much to pay or not…to rescue 50 slides from obsolescence and drag them kicking and screaming into the future.

After mounting the camera to the tripod I position the camera a few inches directly above the light box. My camera has the benefit of an LCD screen so I can see what the photo will look like without looking into a viewfinder on the camera. Once the image in the LCD screen is like the before photos shown below I snap the photo.

I recently added guides to my light box that allow me to quickly change slides and have them aligned straight. I used a couple of tongue depressors that I taped with masking tape to the light box along the bottom and right hand edge. Now every photo is straight and in the same location.

The crucial difference between these two laptops, though, is not the hardware — it’s the software. The Mac OS X operating system and the iLife suite — iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand — will make it easy for you to start producing multimedia stories. Windows Vista will not.

Mindy faces some criticism for this perspective, but as an avid user of UbuntuLinux, Windows and Mac operating systems, I have to agree that for journalism purposes, a Macbook Pro running iLife is going to be much better. It all boils down to what you think journalism is REALLY about–are we all to be video journalists in the end? This video about journalism…puts it in context:

If it’s only about words, creating and collaborating online via content management systems (e.g. Joomla, WordPress, Modx) and other services (e.g. GoogleDocs) then any machine would work. If it was about working with images such as photos, etc., or audio recording/editing, then all 3 operating systems have something to offer. The software tools for these include Picasa (available for Windows and GNU/Linux) for image management, THE GIMP for image editing (available for all 3 platforms), and Audacity, although some would argue Garageband on the Mac easily trumps Audacity (it does in some ways but I prefer Audacity…but then, I don’t podcast as much as I would have thought I should have).

But if you believe that journalism is about more than words and print–and it certainly must be in these times of change–then video factors in and for that, a Macbook Pro does seem the easiest way to go.

Consider these opinions:

Howard Owens asks, Is your site producing enough video, or are you still doing hours-long productions praying for a hit? With this question, it appears that journalists need to be producing video. He cites a Brett Wilson (TubeMogul.com CEO) as quoted in Beet.tv assertion that says online video has a short shelf life…essentially, if you’re going to make it, you need to be able to produce video and get it online fast. In this entry, Owens quotes Tammy Haddad (another Beet.tv source) : With hand held cameras, video reporting is a natural extension of print reporting and holds great advantage for newspaper publishers.

How can you integrate this idea into your store’s blog or website? If you have an author in the store, ask if you can record a brief video. Let the author talk about his or her area of expertise, but in a way that doesn’t just promote the book but also provides a nugget of valuable information that might be shared.

Secondly, if you don’t have an author, you can find someone in your community who can speak to a topic that is of interest to your community. Is one of your customers a financial planner? Record them speaking about their take on what people should do, and integrate that into a post where you write about some of the new books addressing the topic.

Since I know nothing about “real” journalism, I find myself agreeing with Mindy. Clearly, you need to be able to produce video quickly. While one can certainly record video with a FLIP camera or video-phone, editing video on a Windows machine just doesn’t seem as easy as on a Mac. In fact, while I loathe iTunes, iPhoto, I think iMovie is great. . .it works great and makes editing a video, adding effects easy. Throw in Final Cut Pro and you can really go to town.

I’d never consider doing video on an UbuntuLinux machine. While it’s gotten easier to view video, I don’t think the video editors on GNU/Linux are anywhere as easy to use as iMovie. But I’m sure that the time is coming when similar apps will be available…but that time isn’t now.

Of course, this is only if you’re going to be focused on video (and being a “new” journalist certainly seems to involve working with video and doing some editing).

What do you think? Video an essential tool for journalists, traditional or otherwise? And, what tools would you have in your toolkit?

So, a quick recap on the video journalists’ toolkit:

FLIP video camera (<$150)

Mobile Phone built in video with accompanying video upload to YouTube or Flickr, same with images/photos to Flickr or PicasaWeb

Audio recording with digital audio recorder or just use Gcast on a mobile phone

At first, I thought we were in for a big expose of all the charlatans that haunt the edublogosphere and end up as speakers in places where the people just lack the sophistication, the energy to read online. Dr. Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant) starts out with Willard Daggett, Ruby Payne–both of whom I had to deal with in different school districts I worked with, having to study their work only to find out now that they are (gasp) EXPOSED as fakes–and then moves on to a short list that, not surprisingly, includes some of my all time favorite speakers, including David Warlick, Doug Johnson, Ewan McIntosh, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, and Wesley Fryer.

Now, I’ll admit to a bias in the case of Doug Johnson and Wes Fryer–I’ve been reading their writing for at least a decade, maybe two (I’m sure Doug is published in some stone tablets somewhere (grin) that I haven’t read yet). David Thornburg, Tom March and Bernie Dodge are also among my favorites.

I found this comment made on Scott’s blog intriguing, but I find the dichotomy too either-or. I seldom find this to be so clear as Jackie Gerstein points outs…well, perhaps only in the case of a big celebrity. I often remember how disgusting ascribing celebrity status to any one speaker is…when it’s done to me, a part of me revolts and says, “Hey, I’m a human being, too!” I’ve played this game with David Warlick and Wes Fryer, both colleagues and, dare I say friends, who I admire when they assume the mantle of consultant as expert. But in both cases, it is the experience of being in the room with them that I’m after, not what they’ll actually teach me.

The consultant-as-the-expert is quite different than the consultant-as-a-facilitator.

The consultant-as-the-expert, as the sage on this stage, is often revered by the audience. Later, he or she is spoken about with great fervor around the water fountain with comments like, “Wasn’t she or he amazing?” The consultant as the facilitator allows participants to walk along side and then in front of him or her. The workplace atmosphere, in this case, becomes, “Aren’t WE amazing?”

The fact is, we all ARE amazing. This deifying of certain individuals isn’t fooling anyone anymore (Dagget’s days are numbered as a speaker, in other words) as more people get connected and online.

In my own selection of a speaker, I am looking for someone that will advocate a particular agenda (mine, obviously) to the benefit of the organization. Often, organizations don’t want to hear the bad news from in-house folks. I’m reminded of this Chris Argyris quote:

Experience shows that organizations have the most difficulty at learning when the problems are difficult and embarrassing or threatening precisely when they need learning most. An organizational defense is a policy, practice, or action that prevents the participants (at any level of the organization) from experiencing embarrassment, or threat, and, at the same time prevents them from discovering the causes of the embarrassment or threat.

So, in the speaking engagements–the fly you in, speak, fly you out kind that Gary Stager has complained about (sorry, no link but it was memorable!)–that I’ve participated in, I’ve actually had the organizational representative tell me that this was why they selected me to give the talk I gave.

In my youth, I would have resented such manipulation when delivering a hands-on workshop. I still remember when I was called in to provide professional development for a teacher who had left the Texas Border Patrol to avoid learning how to use computers; imagine his shock when he found he had to learn how to use technology in the small central South Texas school district I was invited to present at!

Yet, since I moved from workshop facilitator to conference speaker, I have had a lots of fun preparing for my presentations. . .it’s a different experience for me…I no longer care WHY I’m being asked in, I’m too busy having fun letting myself “off the leash.” Simply, I have a fun being a speaker; I can only hope the folks in the audience feel that way, too.

In the interests of transparency, I once felt that I had to be up on the latest and greatest in ed-tech…but, I’ve had a change of heart. After watching so many edubloggers make good as professional speakers, I recognize that the standards have changed. Before I outline what those standards are, I’d like to touch briefly on some of the excellent one-word points Scott makes; my opinions follow the dash.

Accuracy – While accuracy is important, we now live in a world where anyone can fact-check you DURING your presentation. The focus has to be on providing engaging access to primary sources of data, not just citing data or ensuring its accuracy. I’m sure this has always been true but we continue to achieve a higher level of expectation.

Currency – Keeping yourself fresh and current is important but when you have access to a world of learners and teachers, the emphasis has to be on being current with real-life, verifiable examples…simply, helping others to better understand the lives of real people in the context of research and data.

Transparency – I often feel that the qualitative researcher’s expectation for confessing his/her bias in a study has found its way into other aspects of life. In addition to being transparent in our thinking, we also have to make it possible for our audience to become a part of that thinking through audience engagement…simply, invite them to be transparent themselves.

Service – Scott shares that it is about the organization, not us. I’ve found the priests and priestesses of an organization are about ensuring that the message and changes recommended by the speaker are hard-hitting, that they transcend the organization’s present troubles and obstacles. Service, for me, often implies subjugating one’s will to that of the organization…but we know that some organizations are best served when one shows up, as a famous speaker and leader said, to set the world on fire.

“It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.” -Agnes Repplier

This quote really captures what being a speaker is for me today. In fact, the flip side of the learning blog is this participation in the flow of conversation that sets us all a-tinglin’. Sometimes, though, one can be over-stimulated (smile) and get “ho-hum.” The more I learn, I’m no longer interested that David Warlick is using PmWiki.org to power his speakers wiki or WordPress for his blog or downloading YouTube videos to embed in his presentations or that he has some factoid that will knock my socks off. I’m actually engaged by the way he presents, how he shares what he is learning or conversing about…and how that happens makes all the difference.

So, with that Repplier quote in mind, here are some of the new expectations for speakers.

New (but getting old quick) Expectations

Visionary, pie in the sky presentations that build on the changing student demographic (you know, citing the Pew Internet research, pick your study) and what that means for teaching, learning and/or leadership. A few short helpful tips on how to become a lifelong learner using the Read/Write Web, personal learning networks, and all that.

Listening to a Conference speaker now is an experience that is increasingly participatory “a la 2.0.” Successful speakers must engage the audience as much as possible through multimedia, Web 2.0 communication tools (e.g. Twitter), and stories that are personally relevant, even if it means involving someone from somewhere else…including the audience who is live blogging and narrowcasting the event via audio, video, live-blogging to the point that if your regular blogger didn’t catch it, you know someone did.

The oddball anecdote, “new story” or statistic that validates, that affirms what we’re doing in schools while uncovering a fresh approach, an “Aha! I missed that but I see that the approach is a refinement to what I’m doing!”

Razzle-dazzle images on dark background that visually stimulate and engage.

Some time ago, I setup a wiki as a companion site to a blog entry or workshop to capture ideas about…

Howdy! My name is Miguel Guhlin and I’m a writer, educator, and technologist. I need your help and hope that our resulting collaboration will be useful to others. I’m trying to justify the expense of technology to impact writing. I’m looking less for anecdotes than I am “hard research,” whatever that is. However, stories are powerful, so I’m asking that if you have either to share, to add them below in the appropriate section. Using the information here, I intend to justify technology advocacy in my district and other places.

Add Your Research/Stories Below

So, I’ll share what I have so far with the understanding that this wiki is now history:

Research on how Technology Impacts WritingScardamalia and Bereiter were some of the earlier researchers in this area. They created an environment called “CSILE” and later “Knowledge Forum.” These technologies were designed specifically to encourage certain writing practices through the use of procedural facilitations (prompts). These were also networked environments so the students could share and critique one another. One place to read about it:

This is another early study on the effect of audience on students’ writing:Cohen, M. & Riel, M. (1989). The Effect of Distant Audiences on Students’ Writing. American Educational Research Journal 26(2), 143-159.

Learning with TechnologySource: http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/pdf/v3n2_jtla.pdfRapid technological advances in the last decade have sparked educational practitioners’interest in utilizing laptops as an instructional tool to improve student learning. Thereis substantial evidence that using technology as an instructional tool enhances studentlearning and educational outcomes. Past research suggests that compared to their non-laptop counterparts, students in classrooms that provide all students with their own lap-tops spend more time involved in collaborative work, participate in more project-basedinstruction, produce writing of higher quality and greater length, gain increased access toinformation, improve research analysis skills, and spend more time doing homework oncomputers. Research has also shown that these students direct their own learning, reporta greater reliance on active learning strategies, readily engage in problem solving andcritical thinking, and consistently show deeper and more flexible uses of technology thanstudents without individual laptops. The study presented here examined the impact ofparticipation in a laptop program on student achievement.

Computer software which allows young children to write and illustrate their own stories before their fine motor skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by hand.

Word processing software stimulates learners to interact more closely with their work.

Audio and video recording can give students instant feedback on their story-telling skills and can help them develop them further.

Multimedia software helps students produce multimedia reports.

Telecommunications programs link students who correspond in writing.

Multimedia Schools, Jan-Feb 2002 v9 i1 p32(4)Digital Storytelling: finds its place in the classroom. (the Place Project) Tom Banaszewski.Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2002 Information Today, Inc.My fourth and fifth graders may never say so, but the Place Project was all about storytelling. At the beginning of the school year, students answered a survey about writing that asked, “Are you a writer?” Sixty percent responded yes. After the Place Project, they responded to the same survey. “Are you a writer?” Ninety-nine percent said yes. Nothing is foolproof, but I have yet to find anything as motivating and influential on students’ self-expression as helping them tell stories about an important place. The added dimension of video provided a meeting place for these students and their creativity.Provided by Miguel Guhlin, mguhlin@yahoo.com, San Antonio, Tx

Technical Communication, May 2002 v49 i2 p256(1)Textbooks versus technology: teaching professional writing to the next generation of technical communicators. (Education).Janice Tovey.J. D. Jenson and D. Morrison. 2001. IEEE transactions on professional communication 44, no. 4:243-266.“This study used quantitative and qualitative measures to determine differences in learning outcomes between two sections of an advanced technical writing course taught by the same instructor. The instructor used traditional textbook methods in one and technology-enhanced methods in the other. The findings upheld those of previous studies in that students in the experimental groups rated both the course and their learning higher than that of their counterparts in the control group. Although fewer significant differences than expected resulted from the many measures taken, substantive positive differences in the writing submitted by students in the experimental groups did occur. In order for such changes in performance to emerge as statistically significant differences, evaluation criteria for technical communication students may need to change.”

College Teaching, Spring 2004 v52 i2 p69(7)Appropriate technology and journal writing: structured dialogues that enhance learning.James Longhurst; Scott A. Sandage.Abstract. Of the many available options, instructors should choose “appropriate technology” that meets pedagogical goals with minimum disruption. Student journal assignments follow many teaching “best practices” but consume time and energy; we recommend e-mail as the most appropriate choice for journal assignments. E-mail encourages fast and personalized feedback, clear application of course materials, and active learning, and it offers a “structured dialogue” that encourages student-faculty interaction within pedagogically and logistically appropriate boundaries. Choosing pedagogically appropriate technology with the lowest support requirement and the simplest learning curve encourages faculty adoption and student learning alike.

Stories

Blogs and WritingI have wondered, too, whether technology affects writing. I have used a blog the last two years in an effort to publish my students’ writings to a wider audience. I wonder, among other things, whether the mere fact that the studetns know others will be reading and commenting on their work instead of just having me look at it or having it on a bulletin board makes a difference. I have worked hard at giving them a wide audience and connecting with other classrooms around the world but I still don’t have hard evidence whether it all makes a difference. I have a lot to learn about good writing instruction and hopefully I can marry my knowledge of these new technolgies with the good writing instruction. Until then I do know that the studetns definitly want writing time. There are audible groans when it’s not on the schedule. And I do know they REALLY have a sense of audience. As One of my students said, “Man, I can’t belive it! Someone from China is reading our stuff!” Those little things keep me going.Gordon Brune5th Grade TeacherMamaroneck, NYbrune@optonline.nethttp://www.mrbrune.org

On Group Share in Writing WorkshopSource: http://www.mguhlin.net/artifacts/cotulla/index.htmOne of the most exciting times during any class was Group Share. This is when we all sat in a circle and listened to what we’d written (I wrote, too). It was a wonderful experience…powerful to me as a new teacher, and even more astonishing now that I look back on it from my experiences in San Antonio and East Texas schools. Yet, sharing has always been an important part of my classroom, as has been working in the excitement of doing things differently. One of my favorites was using Marjorie Franks’ book, “If you’re trying to teach kids how to write, you’ve gotta have this book!” What a wonderful book full of activities, like the clotheline activity I did with my students.

I am presently implementing a writing lab using technology. All students k-5 attend the computer lab three times a week for writingskills. I use some pieces of software to reinforce skills, teach diagramming and use Grammar Rock as part of that program, and then we use the computers to type their stories. The other important part of the program is on-line Criterion Reference which holistically scores their writing. Our middle school teacher also uses these methods. I am also looking into Accelerated Grammar & Spelling and working on a grant to buy laptops for the elementary building. This is in the developmental stages, but I used to teach writing and computer combined years ago (before there were technology TEKS…LOL) and we scored consistently high on our TAKS writing. We were exemplary all those years and our writing scores were in the 90’s. Our scores have faltered since eliminating the program and my superintendent asked me to train teachers and students.Provided by Caren Harris,Tech. Coord.,Hunt ISD

Tim Holt, Scott Floyd and I were having a bit of fun when we came up with an idea for a monthly podcast. Unfortunately, I fear we failed to consider our busy schedules and division of labor when making ambitious plans for a Texas-centric ed-tech podcast. So, the following plans were never realized.

Since I’m cleaning out my Wikispaces area, I thought I’d move the content over here for the wikispace we put together to host the podcast planning sessions and then nuke the site.

3 Blind Mice Education Technology Podcast

A Weekly podcast on Texas education technology and curriculum issues.

Hosts:

Purpose: Join the 3 Blind Mice as they explore exciting, new Texas-specific developments in Educational Technology, confronting tough Texas topics and issues for the benefit of students, teachers, and leaders.

Podcast Structure:

10-15 Minutes – Review of things in the news/research about ed tech. Each person comments about their thoughts about the news article…

Sure, you might have a new high-speed laptop, or a new whizbang classroom computer shared with others, or even access to storage space on your institution’s network, but do you have all of the space support that you need to manage your content? And can you always count on storing and accessing all of your valuable classroom teaching material on demand? Maybe not.

First, that new laptop with seemingly endless storage capacity must either travel with you in order for you to access content on demand, and any special-purpose software needed for accessing the files must also go with you. Whether this involves travel across the hall, across the country or across the ocean, carrying a laptop is not always the easiest content management option.

Second, let’s examine the virtues of that new whizbang shared classroom computer that is accessed during the day by an endless parade of users who have different needs, who utilize some of the storage space, and who delete your files on a surprisingly consistent basis while trying to access their own files.

If you are limited by space allocation or by policy guidelines in the kinds or size of content files you may store in a classroom computer, then alternative content management options can make a difference in the effectiveness of how you teach your classes and the speed with which you can access your files for classroom use. This assumes that your files are even still there when you attempt to retrieve them since some classroom computers have no password-accessed, uniquely allocated storage space assigned to individuals. And without password-protected access, you can lose the precious content you have created or the quick access to high-impact online sites that you had planned to use for inclass demonstrations and discussion.

If all of the content files managed by everyone in the classroom are stored to, say, DESKTOP, then you are at the mercy of whoever used the computer before you. Even more seriously, if your institutional technology protocol includes software that erases all newly stored files each time the computer is turned off, there go your files! Hope you brought a backup flash memory key that holds the original data with you to class.

Third, let’s consider allocated space on the institution’s network. The maximum space allocated per individual user might be quite limited or the type of content files allowed for storage might be restricted.

The three scenarios do suggest some classroom content management support, yet not usually enough, so let’s explore free support options available to you and how they might be used.

These sites discussed below offer you off-site, mobile storage and/or access options that are not restricted to a laptop, a classroom or an institutional network. They offer flexibility, remote access, freedom from carrying a laptop, and on demand access from anyplace where you have access to the Internet.

Content Management From Various Locations

I (Pat) teach International Business and use numerous short video demonstrations that I have accumulated and saved from copyright-free sites. I have also edited longer videos so that I have the very short segment that perfectly tells the story that we need to discuss in class about a specific concept.

I download the uncut videos with the use of Real Player 11 that allows me to mouse over almost any video I am watching online, click on the “download this file” window that pops up, and save a particular video in my Real Player Library that I have created on my hard drive.

The pro of this approach is that I have the entire video file content saved for later use and can also back it up to my Iomega external hard drive for peace of mind. The con is that in order to use it in the classroom, I must save it to a portable storage device such as a flash memory key, and then load in onto the classroom computer in order to play it. And, if that computer has Deepfreeze or similar software loaded and the computer shuts down accidentally, then I must reload that video file yet again.

Also, (as a repetitive access-creation step in addition to, not instead of saving the file) I use my space created at http://www.del.icio.us for listing each URL of a useful video file that remains online (rather than being downloaded) and that I can access (so long as the file remains available online in the future) to play from any location or in any classroom where I can access the site via the Internet.

Just to be safe, I save the URL at del.icio.us and also save the content to my hard drive since del.icio.us does not save the content but instead saves only the URL address of the content. Also, if I decide that it is a file that I can use more than once because relying only on del.icio.us means that I take for granted that the file out on the Internet will always be on the Internet and always be at the same URL.

Wikifying Your Inbox

I (Miguel) use a wiki option for saving files that involve collaboration. Over the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with wikis at work. As a district administrator, I have fun keeping track of hundreds of documents that find their way into my email inbox, that get “locked up” on my hard drive. Often, these documents are not confidential, and really should be looked at by lots of people. Yet, since email is the “killer app” that we’ve all grown dependent upon, we find ourselves with more in our inbox than we can delete.

If you find that characterization to be true of your own inbox, then you might find this next one to be even more apt. Documents that are attached to your emails eventually take over your email backups. You start to wonder, where can I put that valuable document? You realize that your email program becomes the primary way you interact with information. After all, it’s easier to keep documents in your email than save them to folders on your hard drive. You put a document on your hard drive, and then you may spend some time looking for it. Even though there are hard drive utilities to find stuff, only the techies know how to install them.

A few months ago, I decided to change that. I began to put non-confidential documents into a wiki. The power of the wiki is that I can continue to move content around, reorganize it easily, and better yet, leverage my secretary’s organizational skills. Once my secretary–an excellent organizer–learned how to use the wiki, I began to point those emails with documents to her, asking her to please post them on the wiki in the appropriate place.

Now, I’m beginning to find that the wiki is THE heart of my document management. And, I’ve started keeping my meeting notes there, as well as works in progress. I’m meeting now, for example, with the technical crew on campus about district server options. My job in the group is to craft the executive summary that we’ll submit for approval. Planning it all out there in the collaborative wiki makes the work transparent.

Transparency. Yes, that’s what I’m really striving for. And footprints in my document management process. I never know what might happen to me on my way home from work. Now, I know that should something happen, my team, those whom I work with, and my supervisors can find out exactly what I’m working on, the documents relevant to that, and more.

Other Content Management Options

“Warehousing”–the storing and filing of important content (video, audio, text) suggests a static concept, while “distribution management” of content suggest a dynamic concept in which the content is available on demand via various access options.

Openomy–http://openomy.com/Openomy provides one gigabyte of storage space, is free, and allows you to have open space access as well as closed (private) space. Unlike past similar services, it organizes information using tags (short single word descriptors) rather than folders. This allows you to find or refer to the file using a variety of words or tags.

Drop.io–http://drop.io/At this site, your files can be “dropped off” for someone else to pick up (students, for example). You upload the file then specify who is to be the person(s) to pick up the file. The person–think “the student”–can receive an email with the instructions on how to access the content you have made available for him/her. The files–up to 100 megabypes each–are kept online for seven days and then deleted. The file size allowed at Drop.io is larger than can be sent through many email systems, so a new content management tool is added to your capacity with this site.

yousendit–http://www.yousendit.com/This service is similar to Drop.io, also free, and provides you with up to one gigabype of content space and features data encryption.

SendThisFile–https://www.sendthisfile.com/Even the free version of SendThisFile claims a no file size limit and no limit on the number of files sent. Beware that you don’t accidentally sign up for a paid account at this site if what you need is a free account!

Summary

Taking the time to manage content well is critical for all of us who have especially rich content that we plan to use again and again. There are many free sites that we can all use to ensure that our content is captured well, saved, backed-up, portable, and available on demand. The enormous flexibility that we gain along with the redundant management tools are pricesless!

To get to User Management, Manage Your Wiki and then click on User Creator

For the past three years, we have offered a service to educators where we create accounts in bulk for your students. It has been a pleasure to meet many of you as we helped you get started with your classroom wikis. You’ll find that the process to create your student accounts has become even easier – within a few minutes, you can set up your classroom accounts on your own.

If your wiki is on our K-12 plan, go to “Manage Wiki” and then “User Creator” to create the accounts. As always, your students don’t need e-mail addresses to enjoy Wikispaces.

What a thrill, Wikispaces.com has made it easy to add student accounts–without email addresses–to your wiki. As far as I can tell, this is a FREE service. Kudos to Wikispaces folks for their wonderful work!! From their blog entry linked above, here are some of the benefits:

create accounts with or without e-mail addresses

have passwords generated for you

add a suffix or prefix to all the usernames to ease creation

and make them members of multiple wikis straight away

You can mass upload users via CSV (comma-delimited which is a standard export from databases, spreadsheets and student information systems), Excel spreadsheet (XLS) or paste the information in.

When a large group of preservice teachers from a private university walked in that summer morning, I have to admit, I was scared. As they trooped in, there was a look of seriousness and zeal on their young faces. Against this resolve, I knew that I couldn’t rely on the camaraderie of veteran teachers sharing their experiences. So, as we began the introductions, one part of me handled the exchange of life experiences and names, while another part gnawed at the question,

“What kind of project can I help them develop that will allow them to construct a webquest as an example of project-based learning?”

Research (Cifuentes, 1996) with preservice teachers has found that:Courses in educational technology should stress expansion of preservice teachers’ methods beyond lecture and including:(1) diversification of modeled teaching methods;(2) student-centered, projects-based learning;(3) meetings with master school teachers who described and demonstrated effective teaching methods; and(4) preservice teacher design of student-centered interdisciplinary units.Other studies (Omoregie & Coleman, 1997) have found that providing professional development for preservice teachers in project-based learning, development of multimedia projects (i.e. incorporating video, sound, etc) can lead to increases of 75 percent academic improvement of preservice teachers and students in core academic.As the use of technology increases in our schools, as well as increased access to the Internet, preservice and classroom teachers should avoid training that limits them to the four walls of their classroom. The process for developing projects in which students in cooperative groups are actively engaged in developing a solution to a real life, relevant problem is still the same, except that now technology (i.e. hypermedia software-from PowerPoint, M’Power and Hyperstudio to web page design tools for students-and Internet access) is being worked in.WORKING WITH EXPERIENCED, CLASSROOM TEACHERSThe most significant stumbling block I have found for experienced teachers has been that of reflection. When I ask classroom teachers to reflect on how the types of projects they have done with their students that incorporate cooperative learning, real life problem, decision-making, they freeze like rabbits caught in the light of my flashlight during evening walks. Then, I switch the flashlight off. I say to them, “Forget about using technology in these projects. Write down what projects you have done, and they don’t have to involve technology.” Then, the flow of past projects begins and they feverishly write these down and we share. Then, I lead them into an exploration of web quests as an example of project-based learning.Other obstacles that tend to make teachers stumble-and I believe they need to work through these obstacles in the safety of my classroom-include the wide variety of software tools they must learn how to use to accomplish the tasks of developing a webquest.Tools that I use during training include:Inspiration � Semantic mapping tool to facilitate the development of a webquest introduction, task and the components of Bernie Dodge’s active learning matrix (i.e. inputs, transformations, and outputs). An example of the web is shown in Figure 1.Netscape Composer � This web page design tool, available for free, allows teachers to create a web page. Other programs are available such as AOL Press.

PRESERVICE TEACHERSWhile the process is similar to that taken with classroom teachers, there are some significant differences. Preservice teachers lack two things that might interfere with their accomplishing the task of developing an interdisciplinary webquest in cooperative groups. These two things are:1) Fear � Preservice teachers are not inhibited by such fears as use of technology programs like PowerPoint, and some have even developed their own web pages and are required to use email for their classes. While there were some students who had had little experience with technology, they were quickly reassured and trusted the facilitator when he said, “Designing a web page is as easy as using a word processor,” a tool that all students had used before. They also were happy to help each other without fear of violating each other’s professional space.2) Cynicism � Preservice teachers lacked the cynicism many teachers have towards technology. Thy are willing to jump into using the technology to further curriculum goals because they have had prior positive experiences. Perhaps, these help them look back on the frustrations of learning new tools from a different perspective than classroom teachers who have seen various technology fads come and go.Another quality that preservice teachers appear to possess, above and beyond alternative certification teachers and regular classroom teachers, is a sense of wonder at what they can accomplish and enthusiasm. As I reflect on successful teachers in the field who use technology, or any other tool to impact student problem-solving and decision-making at higher levels, it’s obvious to see that these two qualities are in abundance.The procedure and materials are available for reading online. I share them with you below. Your feedback and suggestions are welcome.The workshop lasted eight hours, and was divided into two 4 hour sessions a week apart. The preservice teachers worked with the following:Learning ObjectivesDevelop a familiarity with project-based learning, learning, and curriculum-technology integration.Develop a familiarity with various information management and their use in project development and implementation.Student GroupingParticipants settled into small groups of 2-3 members.Procedure1. Preservice teachers were introduced to the concept of Project-based learning and then shown webquests as an example of Project-based learning.2. Preservice teachers used Inspiration to map out their topics, develop an introduction and task as part of the Webquest development process, including the roles that their students would play in solving the challenging task of the webquest. Special emphasis was made that the focus be on a challenging scenario or situation that students would have to collaborate in character to solve, then to present.3. Dr. Bernie Dodge’s active learning flow matrix was used to break down the WebQuest process, involving INPUTS, TRANSFORMATIONS, and OUTPUTS. You can find it at: http://www.mguhlin.net/tiftech/agendas/activelearningflow.htm4. At the end of the first session, participants received a copy of their semantic webs developed using Inspiration. Example available online at: (http://www.mguhlin.net/techserv/projects/stmarys/Immigration%20to%20the%20U.GIF ). They also had the assignment of locating Internet-based resources for use in the webquest.5. At the beginning of the second session (4 hours), participants developed a webquest web page using Netscape Composer. They were instructed to focus on content rather than “glitz” (i.e. graphics/sound). They were allowed two hours for this portion of the project.6. The final two hours were given over to an introduction of Powerpoint 98. Participants developed a presentation based on their WebQuest that serves as “teachers’ notes” for their webquest.7. The last 30 minutes of class was given to group presentations.Teacher/Student MaterialsShould you need a copy of the handouts shared, they are listed below. Note that you can download the PowerPoint presentations in Office 97/98 format in case you need to make modifications. Please feel free to use them so long as credit is given to the appropriate source.Session 1

After working with the preservice teachers, I revised the process of introducing regular classroom teachers to webquest. The revised process is now used during TIFTECH Training, Curriculum & Instruction Strand. You can find the revised step-by-step at:http://www.mguhlin.net/tiftech/agendas/cday2.html .

As you review the published projects available at: http://www.mguhlin.net/techserv/projects/ you’ll note that the quality of the product of preservice teachers in developing webquests as examples of project-based learning. Yet, as one looks at the projects developed and marvels at their quality, you will also note that the teachers’ notes-which some might term lesson plan for implementation in the classroom-is not as detailed as one that might be developed by more experienced, classroom teachers.

From my experiences with enthusiastic and positive experienced, classroom teachers, I know that the two essential qualities needed to integrate technology or other tools-enthusiasm and a sense of wonder-may survive the first, sometimes fatal, year of teaching preservice and alternative certification teachers have to survive and learn from.

ReferencesCifuentes, L. (1996) From Sages to Guides: A Professional Development Study. ERIC_NO: ED397036. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (New York, NY, April 8-12, 1996)Omoregie, M. & Coleman, B. (1997). Technology infusion: The impact of technology infusion in creating quality instructional materials. ERIC_NO: ED415213. 12p.; Paper presented at the Annual National Conference on Creating the Quality School (6th, Oklahoma City, OK, March 20-22, 1997).

Like Cortez searching for the fabled cities of Cibola, we’ve staggered around in the desert of educational technology for a few years. Now, that we’ve found those fabled cities of gold–just think of online sites like ONLINE EDUCATOR and CLASSROOM CONNECT with hundreds of lesson plans that refer to specific web sites online–how do we spend it? And, can sites with “canned” lesson plans such as these really satisfy our desire to use the Internet in the classroom? Do we want to risk becoming dependent once again, like teachers in the past depending on textbooks, on someone else to design what happens in the classroom?

As Dr. Judi Harris has mentioned, we go through a cycle using the Internet. Her description of the cycle appears below:

1. We all begin on the Web by “telegathering” (surfing) and “telehunting” (searching. This we can do pretty well. What wedon’tdo very well yet is to take educationally sound stepsbeyondtelegathering and telehunting).2. We need to help our students and ourselves “teleharvest” (sift through, cogitate, comprehend, etc.) the information that we find, and “telepackage” the knowledge that results from active interaction (application, synthesis, evaluation, etc.) with the information.3. Then, we need to “teleplant” (telepublish, telecollaborate, etc.) thesetelepackagesby sharing them with others…who use them as information in their…4. …telegathering & telehunting, and the process cycles back around again.

Most of us are at the tele-gathering and hunting stage, finding and collecting web sites that we believe are useful. How many educational web sites do you visit that have a list of lists, collections of fantastic sites on the web? Impossible to keep track of and maintain, these lists are just more information that each of us has to wade through, each time creating our own links. The pack mules can’t carry all the gold that we’ve found out there. Maybe, now that we’ve accumulated the gold, it’s time to do more than look at it. To do that, we have to know what’s valuable, what’s not. According to a colleague, Jim McNamara (jmcn@tenet.edu), evaluating something means being able to extract the value out of it.

Panning Gold from Web Sites

Several years ago, magazine articles asked questions like:“How do I find technology resources that will help me put together a unit on the effects of acid rain?”“How do I integrate technology into the curriculum?”Now that there’s so many web sites that are being cited as curricular resources, we have to separate gold dust, and the occasional nugget, from the pebbles. We can visit each site, making arbitrary decisions about each site, or, let others decide for us, or better yet, do both but have specific assessment guidelines.In “extracting value,” or evaluating, web sites for education, we have to look beyond simplistic web site evaluation tools. These tools evaluate how well a web site communicates its intended message. To use the Internet as a curriculum resource, we have to ask ourselves how do we evaluate a web site for curricular use? The following table highlights 7 points we need to remember as we visit that list of lists.

Is the web site…age-appropriate, andare there suitable instructional support materials?

3

Content

Is the content…accurate,current,thorough,relevant, andusable across the curriculum?

4

Portability

Are there restrictions…on the use of content at a particular web site?Copyright issues?

5

Accuracy and Bias

Does the web site havea particular historical or cultural perspective that may serve as an example of a viewpoint?equal representation of opposing viewpoints?

6

Sensitive Content

Does the web site contain content that may be considered inappropriate by the school, even when studied in the context of a particular historical or cultural perspective?

7

Relevant Extension of Classroom Learning Experiences

Though a web site may offer content not available in a textbook, in what relevant ways does it offer experiences that extend learning?

Total

The only one who wins in the gold rush is the clerk in the general store.As we said earlier, we have to know what’s valuable and what’s not. Perhaps, just like prudent gold miners, before we reach for the modern equivalent of a sluice pan to look for gold (a computer with Internet access), we decide where, when, and on what we’re going to spend that gold. If we fail to do the planning, the gold rush will result in cyber-ghost towns, boot hills with unemployed administrators and reckless teachers, and, worst of all, bankrupt students.

PLANNING INTERNET PROJECTSEvaluating Internet-based curriculum resources is only the first step. The second step is deciding how to use those resources in the classroom. In my work with school districts, the planning sessions are the most exciting aspect of helping teachers learn how to use the Internet. The Technology Services Component, Education Service Center, Region 20, an organization that supports 51 school districts efforts at integrating technology, has developed a series of workshops that facilitate the process of Internet Project Design. As Dr. Harris shared with us, it is critical to follow a model that gives teachers hands-on experience to using the Internet, then addresses curriculum integration. In light of these suggestions for workshops, Technology Services has put together the following Internet Learning Institute, a 30-hour course for teachers that takes advantage of web-based discussion groups and is based on the work of Dr. Judi Harris. The course description is shown below:

Internet Navigation

This class provides an overview of the Internet and the resources available with emphasis on the World Wide Web. WWW search engines will be explored in depth with a focus on finding and evaluating curriculum materials. (6 hours)

Participants will learn how to publish student work, as well as their own, via the Internet using MS Office tools, HyperStudio, and other presentation tools. Issues such as evaluation of student work, electronically-displayed student work release forms will be addressed. They will also learn how to use popular web publishing software to design web pages focused on student work (6 hours).

Prerequisite skills for the class include:Basic desktop navigation skills on either Windows or Macintosh computers.Word processing skills at a basic level (minimum), although intermediate level is preferred.Each session in the Institute can be contracted individually or as a whole for $350.00 per six hour session for up to sixteen participants. We usually recommend that districts contract for on-site follow-up consultation since “planned” just-in-time support can have a tremendous impact on teacher morale and effectiveness.Facilitating the Internet Learning InstituteDesigned to build teachers’ online skills from introductory levels to curriculum integration of the Internet, the Internet Learning Institute provides participants with an effective plan for using the Internet in the classroom. The work of Dr. Judi Harris guides our workshops, and our success is due in great part to her, and her oft-given gifts of advice and tips.In addition to the content, handouts, PowerPoint presentations our group of facilitators uses are three guidelines that I have found to make workshops successful (all available at the Education Service Center, Region 20 web site: http://www.esc20.k12.tx.us/techserv/materials/internetpromat.html ). The three guidelines are listed below:1) Ask participants what they hope to learn at the beginning of the workshop.2) Encourage participants to share they are learning during the workshop.3) Invite participants to share how they’ve achieved their learning goals at the end of the workshop.I make an effort to achieve these three simple goals when I do a workshop. I have found that my participants appreciate my listening. Important is not only the hands-on training, but the dynamics of building a community of learners that will share ideas and talk about what they’re learning. The Internet Learning Institute has presented us, the Technology Services Component at the Education Service Center, Region 20, with an excellent opportunity to listen, to build knowledge from information, and establish learning partnerships with the people that we serve. And, those are never easy tasks when you see people only at what some people might term, “one-shot workshops.” Yet, new web-based technologies can help overcome the loss of contact from one session to the next. In environments where Internet access exists, teachers can read the work of others that have come before them through web-based discussion groups.

Web-Based Discussion GroupsThey didn’t make conversation; rather they let a seedling of thought sprout by itself, and thenwatched with wonder while it sent out branching limbs. They were surprised at the strange forestthis conversation bore, for they didn’t direct their thinking, nor trellis nor trim it the way so manypeople do.—John SteinbeckThe strange, online forest available through discussion groups (created with **MS-Front Page** Discussion Group web bot) that results from exchanges of project ideas serves as the most visible example of the workshop’s success. For beginning teachers, making the curriculum connection involves distinguishing between information (public, available to all) and knowledge (private understanding/internalization of information). Web-based discussion groups allow workshop participants to share their efforts at knowledge-construction with others. You can access the Internet Learning Institute discussion group at http://www.esc20.k12.tx.us/techserv/discussion/ili_frm.htm.

This serves as a way for participants to asynchronously stay in touch with each other, as well as contribute to an online resource available to Internet Learning Institute participants from other sessions. The three guidelines, based on the concept of sharing, discussed below can find natural fruition in the web-based discussion groups.

ASK PEOPLE WHAT THEY HOPE TO LEARN

Want to facilitate a successful workshop? Ask the persons in your workshop to share what they want to learn. I take notes as I listen to what they hope to accomplish. For example, in the Internet Learning Institute, there are five workshops. The first workshop deals with Internet Navigation.Participants in the first workshop always begin with the statement, “I don’t know anything about the Internet. That’s why I’m here.” My response is, “Forget about what you don’t know about the Internet…what do you do when you get home, away from work?” The answers range from, “I keep track of my stock portfolio” to “Read about the Republic of Texas shenanigans.”For the teachers at Dwight Middle School in South San ISD (San Antonio, Texas), recipients of the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund grant, I think the most surprising aspect of the staff development session is that we spent so much time focusing on their personal interests. Teachers used their personal interests to learn how to search the Internet. As teachers progressed through the Institute, they came to appreciate the importance of the morning, “This is what we’re going to be discussing today. What have you learned that is related to this?” In the afternoon, when evaluation forms were returned, teachers could easily decide how successful they had been–had they found out about those things they were interested in, or had they wasted the day?A history teacher posed the question, “Last time I was here [Evaluating Web Sites as Curriculum Resources], I visited a site that was filled with this long diatribe on religion. It was in a section entitled RANT and RAVE.” Evaluating this site proved useful to her because she could see that only one view was represented. In the ensuing discussion, we agreed that “while this site may be unsuitable for our middle school students, it need not be for high school students, who in addition to considering opposing viewpoints, could also discuss the language used in the rant.” This emphasized the need for students to shift from being consumers of information to knowledge-makers who carefully sift through information before making it their own. How do teachers do this?Another teacher, centered on designing Internet Projects, asked, “Although we’ve had time to visit so many different web sites, how do you use them with your kids? I have here a printout of a web site that I can give to my students to read, but what else can I do?” A natural question that must be answered before teachers can use the Internet as more than a curriculum resource. The discussion that came about included the ideas that we begin our odyssey using the Internet as hunters and gatherers of old. We collect URLs and share them, looking for that perfect site. Dr. Judi Harris calls this, “Tele-gathering and Tele-hunting.” To move to the next level, that of “Tele-planters,” we have to gather information, synthesize it, and then transform it into knowledge. In doing this, we can then share our knowledge with others, where our knowledge then becomes an informati Pa^)Pa^).. Pa^)Pa^)?FINDER DAT”Pa^))Qa^)W?EU?NImagel?2.gife?Le?Le?Le?LU?NMAGE2 GIF O?N??f)%)O?N??f)A?N{U?NindexL3.htmle?Le?Le?Le?LU?NNDEX~1 HTM O?N??f)%)@%)u?LX?E^i?N@E?N?E^i?N@E?N:a`?fe?L2?MIGUEL JPGone.html????@?|e?Le?Le?La`TEXTMSIE?E^i?N@E?N?E^A?NnE?NO:a`?fe?L2A^ONE~1 HTMontheborder.jpg????@?|e?Le?Le?La`JPEGogle?E^i?NA?E^i?NAO:a`?fe?L2i?LNTHEB~1JPG pblbig6.html????@?|e?Le?Le?La`TEXTMSIESHARE WHAT YOU KNOW.

“Do you really think it will take that much time?” I’d ask my colleagues, and they would tell me, “It’s important that they [participants] share their own experiences, talk about the changes that using this technology will cause.” After years of working with teachers on integrating technology, this universal truth has sunk in.As we were discussing The Internet as a Curriculum Resource, I passed out some examples of the Dr. Judi Harris’ activity structures. Not much, just three brief examples, and broke the group into three large groups. I asked them to look at the paragraph and tell me what they thought. To guide them further, I asked them to write down some questions. What a shock it was to hear their responses to the examples. One group, composed of middle school science teachers, stated that this example could be used to facilitate the teaching of the scientific method.Sitting down, listening to the reporter for the group as he elaborated on his opening comments, I could find little to do with science, much less the scientific method. “How did you come up with that?” I asked, perplexed. One of the other teachers replied, “He’s a science teacher. You can use anything to teach the scientific method. He does it to us all the time.”This application of the scientific method to a seemingly unrelated topic convinced me of the power of sharing, of building learning communities. As instructor, there was a right answer and specific ideas I wanted these teachers to “get.” As facilitator, however, while the connection this teacher made caught me off-guard, this made the process of knowledge-making easier for him and the others in his group. His sharing enabled me, if no one else, to better illustrate the application of the scientific method to the use of the Internet in the classroom, as shown in the example.These mini-presentations on the part of the participants help build a bond in between participants that was not present before. That their relationship has improved for the better is evident in the way they joke about their errors in using the Internet, and as they explain how their idea for Internet-based projects could be better crafted. Some of the project ideas they have developed in the Internet as a Curriculum Resource class, ideas that lay the groundwork for full-blown Internet Projects, are listed below:

Research Writing: create their own Q&A service for working with other studentsMeet the Author: focuses on interview skills, research skills.Electronic mentoring with other studentsPosting a San Antonio, Fiesta-related project to share San Antonio culture with the world.Posting TeleField trips to San Antonio historical sites like the Alamo, the Missions, parks, Edward’s Acquifer.

As my seventh-grade teacher–a fact I discovered when she turned in her dyad’s contribution to ideas for Internet Projects and I saw her name on the sheet–walked out the door, she whispered, “I gave you 10s on the evaluation.” What had I done that was worthy of 10s? It surely wasn’t knowledge of the subject matter. Like a class I’d done with science and math teachers, the first words out of my mouth were, “I’m a writer, not a mathematician or scientist. You know more about science and math than I will ever know. You intimidate me, yet I know that by the end of the day, you will think I’m brilliant.” That’s not conceit talking. If we offer our workshop participants the opportunity to share their accomplishments, what they’ve learned as they begin an Internet Odyssey, then we will all get 10s on our evaluations.It isn’t that the Internet has so much to offer, it’s that we have so much to offer each other. Our journey together, sharing our joys and sorrows, has meaning. With so much information, we must construct knowledge together. Just like the teachers at Dwight Middle School in South San Antonio ISD are learning, using the Internet in the classroom is more than gathering information. . .it’s a process of making meaning from that information that is relevant to our lives.

The Internet Learning Institute guarantees that knowledge-makers will walk into the world with discerning minds, and make decisions that take into account the community. And, once our teachers know this, it is their responsibility to do the same for their students. I know because I’m a student of such teachers. Wouldn’t it be great if our children were, too?

I wrote the following about the time my Dad was passing away…some of the sadness found its way into this piece.

Before going to sleep one evening in September, 2006, my 12 year old daughter and I watched the first 30 minutes of Primetime’s Cruel Intentions. It was, essentially, an expose about girls and their electronic gadgets. The show should have been titled “Cyberbullying,” since that was what it was really about. However, Cruel Intentions seemed as good a name as any.

As we watched the show–which depicted teenage high school girls abusing each other via MySpace, IM, blogs, using camera phones to capture themselves and others in seductive or embarrassing poses–I was reminded of my first exploration of MySpace.com. My reaction then was to call for blocking of MySpace and similar sites in schools. The effect of the show was to reinforce my negative impression of MySpace. The most telling quote in the show was made by the father of a young boy who was bullied online, “Buying the computer was the worst mistake I ever made….“

It appears that giving kids access to the Read/Write web is like putting a loaded pistol in their hands without education. And, how many kids have to be bullied online before everyone wakes up (no, not you edubloggers…the other people who haven’t read your blogs) and realizes that digital citizenship, that education is the only way? As we listened to the show, I just gave my daughter long looks. We didn’t have to speak. We knew what the other was thinking. How many parents even realize that their children are involved in the more sinister side of the Read/Write Web? Administrators are caught between a rock and a hard place, a situation that Scott McLeod? (Dangerously Irrelevant) writes about:

Some schools and districts are providing rich sets of tools for teachers and students to use for classroom purposes. These tools include e-mail accounts, network folders, web pages, parent portals, online chat, online threaded discussion areas, online whiteboards, online calendars, instant messaging, wikis, blogs, podcasts, and other similar tools. No district, however, is making all of these tools available to all teachers and, indeed, probably never can. The incredible (and burgeoning) diversity of available tools is simply too much for school systems to keep up with, more or less provide.

Disruptive technologies–exemplified by the ability to publish at will in text, audio, video formats or any combination of those–enhance our freedom of speech, freedom to assemble in virtual communities. Social networking tools like MySpace (or Facebook and Bebo) and YouTube grant freedom of speech and assembly to the masses in a way that the American Revolution never could. For this reason, disruptive technologies that connect people to each other are the greatest threat to the powerful who have traditionally controlled the means of publication. Unfortunately, that includes our schools.

In 2005, several school districts in Texas banned the words “ MySpace.com.” Not only did this word ban people from accessing MySpace.com, but it also kept educators from reading about it in online newspapers and digital citizenship sites. The reason for banning ranged from preventing flash mobs around the subject of immigration to preventing students from exposing themselves to cyber-predators. These blocks frustrated legitimate uses of Web 2.0 tools, and failed to prevent tech-savvy students from using freedom tools to access banned sites.

Yet, technology has advanced to the stage that school districts cannot keep up, short of closing off Internet access. Their only hope may be to create walled gardens–using Web 2.0 tools–that mimic the world but keep students, teachers safe. When you harness the power of a worldwide community to develop ways to bypass content filtering and site banning for freedom advocacy in countries like China, can we really expect a proprietary company to keep up? Consider the money that districts must invest to upgrade their technology watchdogs.

Districts are hopelessly out-gunned. In fact, as quickly as they can raise the funding to pay for technology watchdogs to upgrade their systems, online communities share ways around them. As districts take on the aspect of repressive regimes, they are drawn into the war between those who say, like the American Patrick Henry, “ Give me Liberty or Give me Death.” Is this, caught in a fight between liberty and oppression, where American schools should be?

**CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE**As an educational technology administrator who champions Read/Write Web tools in schools today, I see that we are in the midst of a fight that we cannot win. Yet, how we lose, how we go down into the darkness must offer hope to those we serve, to those for whom we administer scarce resources, and, for each other. We face three terrific battles, and they are as follows:

The Fight for Relevance

The Fight for Connected Learning

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The Fight for Freedom from Consumerism

Redefining our vision of the future hinges on these three battles, conflicts that we can win only by losing. In fact, consider Ted Nellen’s words. They are invitation to despair, yet, also, something more that lies on the other side of defeat.

I used to rant and rave and present and publish this for many years, but alas spitting in the wind has gotten the best of me and i have resigned myself to the demise of tech and substantial use of it in schools for the future because of the reactionary attitude of punishment and prohibition over the more intelligent choice of education of the user. as i have said before the adults who lead dont get it and never will. i have beat my head against this brick wall for too long, screamed and shouted till i’m hoarse, demonstrated the success potential for too long. as i near my twilight years, i am content to merely fade away on this topic as i see it getting worse and worse. we had our heyday and i dont see it happening again. camelot is dead and so it intelligent use of the tech in schools, IMHO.

We must allow technology to not be “intelligently” used. Ted’s despair is our hope. We must abandon previous positions on the efficacy of technology in schools, and instead, use technology to amplify the human voice, the voices of our children. As parents, teachers, and administrators, it is our responsibility to do the right thing. That’s a simple expectation, incredibly difficult to accomplish.

On my way to work a few weeks ago, National Public Radio shared an interview with a musician who also happened to have been knighted. I regret that I couldn’t take notes and have forgotten every detail of the conversation, except what I’m about to share here. Let’s just say that as I listened to the story, I found a remarkable coincidence between the knight’s appraisal of how we treat hunger and education today. He said something along the lines of, “We know what the right things to do are, yet we consistently fail to do them.”

With such a quote, it would be easy to stop doing the right things, to say, “Aww heck, I’m giving up.” Yet, with the blogosphere, there are ample examples of teachers doing the right thing. Here is a short list of class blogs that I’ve surveyed recently. While there are literally hundreds of class blogs, I’m keeping this list short. You know the power of a child’s voice can galvanize a room of educators and parents. Why not take advantage of that? Here are four quick examples where you can find audio of children’s voices:

1) Paul Gates at Madison Elementary School. Ok, this teacher is in my own school district, but I have to shine a spotlight on this teacher to the ranks of blogging classrooms. Blogging as personal as you can get, and blogging classrooms are no different. Each depends on the personalities of the students, their background, etc. Paul’s students have consistently written about the garden that they keep, and everything they are learning about plants. You can find audio blog entries (a.k.a. podcasts) from individual students sharing what they have learned, written about, and drawn by hand. It is Paul’s class blog that has taught me the definition of a blog–an electronic notebook that facilitates conversations between those who blog there, as well visitors. Visit the blog online at http://lms.saisd.net/cblog/index.php?blog=6

2) Mark Ahlness‘ Mighty Writers Blog in Seattle, Washington. Mark’s class is using David Warlick’s ClassBlogmeister.com blogging tool, as are many others. There’s even a Junior SeaHawk Newsletter podcast along with print editions. If you’re wondering how to approach blogging and podcasting in schools, this is another example. Since I was a third grade teacher once–who thoroughly enjoyed teaching writing–I’d like to think that I might be doing what Mark’s doing now with his students.

3) Cheryl Oakes’ is doing a fantastic job with her blogmeister experience. What stands out for me, aside from the Audio Notes with Ms. Oakes, is something she wrote that sends such a terrific message to the rest of us in schools embroiled in the MySpace discussion:

This project is a great project for young people to start with, I am having a say in how they will use myspace and Xanga later on. I am not na?ve enough to believe that there will never be bullying or sharing information with this group of students but I do know that they know it is not COOL to share personal information and it is not COOL to be mean to someone. Students this age are really black and white when they view the world. I immediately get sticky messages or email when they observe someone has done wrong! These are teachable moments.

If only all of us took advantage of those teachable moments.4) Kathy Cassidy’s Grade 1 blog, which I was introduced to in discussions online via the Class Blogmeister list, struggled recently with trying to get enhanced podcasts online. I love the fact that the student entries are unedited by the teacher, and that podcasts and images abound. One un-edited entry is this one, “It is olmosteeaster in aprol my mom and dad will hide easter aggs it will be fun.”

It reminds me of how young writers shouldn’t be afraid to write what they’re thinking, even if the spelling and grammar are a bit off. While it is disappointing to see young teachers edit their children’s work prior to publication, it is always refreshing to see a teacher unafraid to share students’ writing “as is.” In the long run, students become better writers when they’re not edited into silence…a valuable lesson for administrators working with their teachers, too.

Although there are many more blogging classrooms, these are a few that can be used as examples to demonstrate the power of writing, podcasting using blogging tools that are available for free. I hope that more will choose to do the right things with our children. If you would like to see a blog featured here, I encourage you to share it here and mention why it captured your attention!

Don’t underestimate the power of children’s voices. Let those voices fight for the freedom to use technology to learn in a way that is relevant, connected, and free. As educators, especially educators responsible for administering school environments, must awaken to the power within us to bring about change through the relationships we build with others. An administrator who fails to build relationships in his district may soon find himself out of a job. The standard has been raised. The administrator who fails to build a web of connections with others online will soon find himself managing irrelevance.

THE FIGHT FOR RELEVANCEWalk into any school district in America, and the focus isn’t on learning. I know that is an unbelievable assertion, yet it is a true one. Our schools are caught up in a frenzy of high-stakes test preparation, angling to move their students 10 points up in the rankings. How do I know this? Last week, I stepped into a superintendent’s office. Her words to me were shocking, as shocking as watching the MySpace? fiasco play itself out.

If you give them fairy dust, something that will improve their test scores by 10 points, then you’ll have technology integration in every elementary, middle and high school. Schools are not doing well in math and science. What technology solution do you have that will raise scores 10 points if they use it?

In the face of such ardent desire for a magic bullet, as an educational technologist, I stand defeated. K-12 education leaders appear to have learned nothing. Sound instructional practice, pedagogy blended with appropriate technology use that is hands-on, inquiry-based is the only solution. Like C.S. Lewis’ characterization of Christianity as an untried prescription for the human condition, this is a solution that has seldom been tried or implemented.

In this situation, can any instructional technologist seriously consider advocating for Web 2.0 implementation? The obvious short-term solution is to invest in integrated learning systems, those tools of tutorial and drill-n-practice that yield short term gains but long-term dis-enagagement from learning. We come now, at the end of days, to the stark reality of a fish out of water, gasping for survival, praying that his gills will let him breathe the thin atmosphere. Quietly or with desperation, educational technology as we knew it is dying.

The change comes about, not because we failed to show its power to impact students, but because teachers, legislators have closed ranks against the vision of transformation, fear coalescing like beads of sweat in the face of virtue.

Jeff Utecht writes about the suspicion of fear, the dawning realization that technology in America’s schools is OPTIONAL. I say he has not gone far enough in his characterization of an expensive investment.

For most schools technology integration is optional. So I am supporting an optional program. I know it’s been said before but: As long as teachers have the option to integrate technology, some will opt not to. Since computers first started showing up in schools it was optional. Some teachers used the computer labs others didn’t. I think we set a standard why back when of technology being optional. Now we are faced with the reality that as a system, education views technology integration as optional.Source: Jeff Utecht, The Thinking Stick

The reality is that schools don’t see technology as optional. Rather, it is irrelevant…whether the laminating machine works is a more relevant concern. Maybe that is splitting hairs, but I see irrelevant as much worse than optional. Optional implies that technology might be used if the teacher chooses, that it has some worth. Irrelevant says that there is no worth, whether you choose to use it or not. I’m often fearful that the best I can do seldom impacts what happens in the classroom.

Into this mix, we must accept the fact that the System is fighting back. On the one hand, Web 2.0 advocates preach a vision of children, teachers, and administrators creating their own personal learning networks, collaborating with each other, but the reality is far from that. But, how do we deal with that reality? In many ways, we are cast as jihadists fighting a battle to war to retake our schools, a struggle for domination. Is this the role we wish to play? And, how will such ideas be greeted? Will we, as ed-tech administrators, get the carrot or the stick?

As we share information and ideas–about anything at variance with the doctrine of those “in power”–we set ourselves up to be punished. In fact, the effort begins with fear, uncertainty, and doubt being spread about an innovation, then goes downhill from there. It’s an unfortunate turn of events, but is it something we should be surprised at? Whether it’s the Church, a school district, a government, a private company, the fact is that if you appear to challenge the status quo–even for the benefit of the organization–you will face censure and punishment. The world’s response is to fight to win, to seek to oppress the other side. It is to destroy the opposition one way or another. It is a human response.

Yet, I wonder if the better approach is to fight to lose. It is the idea that we are fighting, not on our own behalf, but to the benefit of the organization we are a part of. If we are willing to sacrifice our jobs, our livelihood for the organization, we gain a tremendous power. Think of Gandhi lying beaten down on the ground in South Africa, his hand reaching up to burn the work passes non-European people had to carry there in 1906, the British officer–imbued with the power of the dominant authority–poised to hit him again. In that moment, the power shifts from the oppressor to the oppressed, the beaten-down.

How do we deal with this? First, we have to be willing to accept the risks of disobedience, to suffer the consequences of that disobedience. That’s too nice. We have to accept that we may be beaten down, perhaps even utterly destroyed by those who wish to maintain the status quo. When we consider that irrelevance is the other option, is that such a bad thing? As administrators, we have taken on a powerful role–on behalf of the oppressors. Should we subvert the system or preach outright rebellion?

>…not by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, …by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority. Read Source

Can we on the one hand preach the benefits of Web 2.0 to transform teaching and learning, while at the same time oppress the use of these tools in K-12 schools? Gandhi has given us our answer–our fight for relevance must be one to enact a program of transformation of relationships ending in a peaceful transfer of power. Our role–as administrators–is to resist, quietly, respectfully and to educate as many people as we can, as quickly as we can as to what the options are. And, there are options. The power of Web 2.0 is that those options can be quickly shared and responded to in ways that email never permitted. As schools move to embrace technologies that are by their very nature, disruptive, they set themselves up for the kind of change desired. In their rush to play along, to keep up with the district two counties or states or territories over, they forget that Web 2.0 technologies are intended to disrupt their control of the information flow. Your task as administrator is to cast fear aside.

The courage comes from knowing that others are suffering with you. Knowing that we’re not alone removes the sting of suffering alone…somehow, we’re bound together by common bonds of fighting fear and isolation. Connectivity is so important. It is the defining moment in our century for people. The more connected we become, the more we reach out even beyond our limited face to face contacts, the more we recognize our common humanity and…divinity.

We have to change ourselves, commit to that change…because we have changed who we are, we change others through our interactions, and our connectivity changes the world. Our simple commitment to change ourselves means that we can fight the un-winnable fight. While we are not assured of winning, we are assured of victory over fear and suffering. Join me in saying,

It is important that I, as a teacher and administrator be able to tell my own stories, not have them scripted or mediated by any one organization. It is time that I take advantage of the tools available to me, and find a way to change myself so that I might be the change I want to see around me.

Leadership isn’t about getting others to do what I want. Leadership is about changing who I am, it’s about acknowledging my hypocrisy, my fear, my unwillingness to follow my conscience. It is easier to remain silent, to say nothing when speaking up is required, simply because to speak up means stirring up ripples. It means knowing that silence is agreement, sometimes with the most hypocritical of ideas. For me, it is in that moment that the meaning of what it is to be lukewarm in Revelations book of the Judeo-Christian Bible–worthy only of being spat out, useless–is driven home.Consider this call to change:

>The nation has begun to seriously look at the restructuring of our schools. The crisis of education demands it. The future of our nation’s ability to compete in a new, global economy depends on it. And to promote learning in America, dramatic changes in all areas of education–from in-class instruction to school-building design–are being contemplated.

The beauty of that quote is that it works in 2006-2007, as well as 1990 when it was originally written.

That’s right, those words were written in 1990. The authors were urgent in their writing, eager to see America deal with the crisis. But, you know what happens when people are in crisis-mode all the time? Experts say that you shouldn’t allow someone else who is insecure about your ability to complete a task on time, throw your own priorities out of whack. It would be far better for you to make decisions about how to best allocate time and energy to address the crisis. So, let’s step back from this education crisis and consider a few points.

1) What technology has been used over the last few years to get us out of the crisis?2) What can you do to get out of crisis mode and control how your time and energy are allocated?3) How can technology help you accomplish that?

QUESTION #1: WHAT TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN USED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS TO GET US OUT OF THE CURRENT CRISIS?

After poring over multiple reports regarding educational technology in the last 20+ years, it becomes obvious that school districts have been worked up to a fever pitch. One report actually comes out and says, go ahead and experiment with new technologies! And, the money poured in. Through it all, some teachers valiantly tried to keep up while others just endured until retirement.

Consider that Henry J. Becker gives us this timeline (with a few modifications at the end):

1982: Have students program your computer.1984: Have students program the computer using LOGO.1986: Use integrated learning systems to teach students.1988: Use computers as tools, like adults do.1990: Integrate computers with existing curriculum1992: Have students use technology to create products1994: Have students interact with the world via email.1996: Have students publish to the World Wide Web

Now, if we skip ahead a bit, we can see what is in store for us.

2000: Have teacher design webquests that require students to role-plays and collaborate to solve a real life problem.

2006: Have teachers and students engage in conversation through the use of blogs and podcasts, as well as create digital stories.

As you look at this timeline, you start to realize that every time technology became available, it was rushed into schools under the guise of educational crisis. Now, that is the crisis we have to overcome.

QUESTION #2: WHAT CAN DO YOU TO GET OUT OF CRISIS MODE AND CONTROL YOUR TIME AND ENERGY?Technology advocates in classrooms, teachers by any other name, often find themselves alternating between two extremes. One the one hand, they are struggling to prepare their students to pass the test, while on the other, they are introducing their children to the latest technologies, experimenting with new approaches to engaging students. While some argue that experimentation is too risky, it is the experiential learning–learning by doing–that engages human beings. When we learn by doing, we remember more, we are more actively engaged. In fact, as adults, the environment we need is not “dissimilar to the atelier of an artist, to be created for accelerating practical learning of both novices and more experienced practitioners” (Argyris & Schon, 1978). Simply, students make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others.

This goal is enshrined in the vision or mission statements of most school districts. Interpretation of how to accomplish that mission, however, has been taken out of the hands of teachers by lock-step scope and sequence documents. Teachers and campus administrators have lost control. How can they be expected to experiment with technology, to learn by doing when the consequences are so dire?

“True peace of mind,” wrote Lin Yutang, “comes from accepting the worst.” As a teacher, as an administrator, what is the worst that can happen? In our high-stakes testing environment, the worst that can happen is that my class of children fails to do as well as the class next door or the kids in China or India. This may result in a negative appraisal, or worse, dismissal or reassignment to another campus or office. The worst also means that your students may be promoted to the next grade level unprepared for the next round of tests. In the long run, it can mean the end of civilization as we know it.

But, let’s be honest. Civilizations end. Are they more likely to end because of fear-driven education or because we fail to nurture the flickering flame of learning? Will civilization fail because we teach to our fears, rather than what motivates us as learners?“What is important is to keep learning,” said Martina Horner, President of Radcliffe College, “to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.”Consider the worst, then allow your students to learn by doing.

QUESTION #3: HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY HELP YOU ACCOMPLISH THAT?Since politicians, pundits, and experts all have an expensive way of using technology in your classroom, I encourage you to ask 3 simple questions. The first question is, “How is technology being used in society today?” This provides some insight into what technologies your students may be using, and that perhaps, you can use. The second question is, “How can such technology facilitate communication, collaborative problem-solving, or solution development?” And, third, “What technology can I use that will be effective for use with all students in the class, not just a select few?”

The only way to have hope of responding to these questions is to “First, cast out fear.” As you consider your responses to these questions, remember that adults, as well as children, accelerate their learning and remember more when they learn by doing. The crisis in education isn’t in our schools. It’s in the fact that we as teachers and administrators have let others who are insecure about our ability make decisions. Don’t you think it’s time we took back our artist’s workrooms, and put fear aside?

The only way through this, to find joy in being, is to become a creator, to share one’s testimony, one’s story, perhaps played on an instrument that is out of tune, to sing with a voice that doesn’t quite hit the notes right, to dance with a faltering step. Simply, it is a fight to do things that are relevant, that unite and bring us closer to each other. It is the possibility of being useful to one another and sharing our journey. In a world that is increasingly connected, we will see repeated efforts to use that connectivity to regulate and control rather than encourage autonomy and collaboration for creative purposes. It is the fight for connected learning, the courage to reach out across the waters, cross borders and great walls we have built, and let children be as they are.

The price for connected learning is too great for any established government–or school–to pay. Governments oppose connected learning because they can serve as tools for social justice.

Web 2.0 tools–blogs, wikis, etc–can obviously serve as tools for social justice. The powers that be caught a glimpse of that with MySpace.com being used to coordinateimmigration walkouts in the Dallas area and other places. Some school districts decided to ban the words–not just the web address/URL–to prevent students access to MySpace.com. While the official reason given is, “MySpace.com is dangerous for students to access due to cyber-predators,” the REAL reason is that students can use such blogs to coordinate their social justice efforts.

Among educators, new leaders are emerging that probably would not have been allowed to organize in public schools. Blogs are enabling leaders to grow and collaborate with each other in a battle for freedom from repressive regimes that have evolved from America’s schools. Bill Kerr, Australian educator, writes:

On the one hand education departments are calling for innovation, change, creating the future, constructivism, more emphasis on engagement with less emphasis on content. On the other hand they are blocking one of the most important sources of the creativity (the read / write web) that they profess to crave for.

The reason given that blogs, wikis, and other Read/Write Web technologies are blocked is to protect our students, as well as protect the District from liability. In education, one of two roads may be taken. The first will be to just eliminate technology integration in schools. This will happen easily since it costs too much. The second, worse than the first, is that technology will become the education version of “treacherous computing” that Richard Stallman refers to. Look around, you will see the reality of this in your district. Have you given up your freedoms without a fight? If you teach in schools today, chances are, you not only gave it up, you did so willingly.I grew up watching Star Trek re-runs, watching Captain Kirk navigate the stars with a directional gesture and a quip, “Somewhere out there, between those two stars” (or something like that). And, for me, that was the description of leadership, the leap into the unknown, the ship flying itself to pieces as a team of dedicated flesh and blood people worked together. It was also the idea that leaders can redefine the circumstances in new ways that make problems solvable. Consider the scenario of Kobayashi Moru, where Kirk reprograms the computer to make winning possible.

Kobayashi Moru is a training scenario for Star Trek captains where they are to rescue a ship called the Kobayashi Moru, which puts them in enemy space–it is, essentially, a no-win situation, and they want to test how the captains-in-training face no-win situations, ie., how you face death and failure is at least as important as how you face success.Fascinating, no? Even though it’s fiction, reconfiguring our understanding of reality, redrawing the map is a critical leadership skill. When I read AssortedStuff Blog today, I ran across this sentence:

To have any hope of actually keeping up, educational “leaders” need to change their whole approach to understanding what the web is, how it works and where it’s going.

In other words, re-conceptualize the situation. What I’m looking for is not educational leaders trying to keep up with the pack, but ones ready to fly into a new star system, risking danger to understand how new technologies can impact teaching, learning and leadership. Yet, I think many of us are settling to be simply managers, and managers are fearful creatures who resent innovation and criminalize creativity. They fail to embrace technology for positive change.

While there are sets of established procedures to follow, the administrators’ task is to redefine reality, to re-design the procedures that change what is permissible and what is not in the culture. Our campus administrators are buried in the avalanche of things that must be done, so much that they seldom achieve the smooth, easy movements that make such leadership appear effortless. Instead of simply responding to the every-day, we have to be able to choose to live from principle, to create the future. This is summarized in this quote:

Choosing to live from principle–to create the future–separates, divides, and changes relationships. When we claim our integrity, when we exercise the courage to enter the fundamental state of leadership, we leave all existing patterns of social exchange. We leave the middle of the curve. We become truly unique.Source:Building the Bridge as You Walk On It, Robert Quinn

This is really about moving from just responding to every day issues, and deciding to “define” rather than be defined, to predict the future by inventing it. AssortedStuff’s blog reflects that decision to become the change we want to see in the world, asking this question: How can anyone possibly understand what the read-write web is all about unless they do some of the writing?In claiming our integrity, we need to come back and ask ourselves, our colleagues, and supervisors some questions, such as:

1) Should we, as educators, be monitoring these sites like MySpace to keep an eye on our students and possibly avert dangerous situations?We need to be modelling digital citizenship, not spending time monitoring MySpace.com sites. Please note that several conversations on a variety of blogs by technology administrators–like you and I–already acknowledge that our filtering systems aren’t finely-grained enough to block some users, not others; some content, not others. For that, we need a human instrument…a human being. The only way to accomplish that is to actively encourage parents, students, teachers and others to practice and model digital citizenship rather than preach “NO MORE MYSPACE.COM!”

Social networking, adult spaces are being mis-appropriated by children. There is a clear desire, need to communicate with others that is facilitated by blogs and wikis. We need to model the right approach to doing so in an academic environment. I have prepared a list of tools that can be used in a “walled garden” approach for schools.2) Is this our core business?

This is a great question because it refocuses us away from what’s the best content filter to teaching for living. We all acknowledge that living in the 21st Century, in the global economy, requires new skills and strategies. Daniel Pink refers to those new skills in his book, A Whole New Mind. They are different than information age skills. I also have to point out that research on using technology within the content areas is focused on communication. Although I explore this in more detail here, I end with this conclusion:

The focus across all of these content areas emphasizes communication and inquiry with appropriate data collection and analysis. Essentially, we need to encourage more information literacy. Yet…is it just me, but is information literacy the most poorly supported of all literacies? Print literacy is obvious…we need it to survive. Information literacy seems to be ignored, and yet it is the MOST critical for us according to these areas. It’s obvious that digital story/poetry-telling, blogs, wikis, podcasting are but one way for students to order the chaos. Perhaps, engaged students might not be so interested in circumventing content filtering and gain the resulting consequences…criminalization of their creativity.

I keep coming back to this question Janet Swenson asks, writing on behalf of Language Arts specialists, “How can newer technologies help us to re-awaken in our students a sincere passion for learning in and across disciplines?”

If in answering Janet’s question, you realize that the focus is not on high stakes testing, then you realize the massive gap between relevant social communications and connectivity our children enjoy, and the irrelevance of what they are learning in school.

Allow me to share only two examples of this irrelevance with you, although be warned that there are more. Capturing these stories could easily become a full-time task.

Moses (his real name albeit in English) is a young man in his early twenties. He makes his living as a computer programmer/developer on a Mac. Although his parents consider him a genius, as do others, they were shocked when he dropped out of his university studies. Since both his parents are university-educated, value higher education as the way to get ahead in the world, they were not quite sure what to do. Moses’ reason was that university is too boring, so he dropped out and is running his own business using technology. He works in Panama but his work is finding its way across country and languages (Moses has been asked to translate his work from Spanish to English). His story, shared with me at a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, Tx by the Panamanian “branch” of my family, reminded me of a similar tale. I had heard the story about my eldest brother’s youngest son, Joseph, who had done the exact same thing.

Joseph’s story is very similar. He began university studies, but then began programming using free and open source software tools, and now works on web sites, databases, and other technical stuff. I’m convinced that these two examples reflect an important fact that we are going to see more and more. It’s not that these two bright young men are failures or couldn’t have done well in higher education. But rather, that university level studies are so SLOW, PLODDING, and cannot keep up with the ACCELERATED PACE of Web 2.0 or Read/Write Web learning. I predict that this is a growing trend and when it branches out to other areas that are heavily involved with technology (e.g. communications technology), people will wake up.We have children hooked up to the Web from young, learning how to learn online, grab information, “rip, mix and burn” in ways that are beyond our willingness, even power, to control. Information literacy, as critical as it is, is a fact of life that they are learning ON THEIR OWN. So, while they aren’t perfect at it, they are just doing it. (This is more than what the rest of us are able to say).

And, they’ll get better with time. Since they can tap into a global community of learners–after all, isn’t that what we are as blogging educators?–they can get answers to questions faster, learn and implement solutions in ways that university (and K-12 schools) just can’t keep up with. K-16 is competing with a GLOBAL community of teachers and learners. How do you get “credentials” in this kind of environment? Or is PRODUCT the only measure of your work? In the case of these young men, it’s clear that they are producing content that is not only marketable in one country, but across countries and cultures. In a flat world, our children design, build, play, tell stories about the tools they use to get the job done.

With the parents of both boys, I shared the story of how my school district bought a product to manage content management system accounts/sites from a Russian company, where the developers were young folks (early to mid 20s from the photos). Customers and service providers are brought together by the technology, as they live and work in a connected world.

We’re living in a world that has been flattened, and digital immigrants are waking up to the fact that the educational institutions that served them so well in the past…just aren’t cutting it for their children. Worse, credentialing and the benefits that once produced have been pushed aside in favor of those bold, clever and innovative enough to blaze their own trail in a a world is new reality. I’ve read–don’t remember where–that people don’t believe the World is Flat, or that our education system is in dire straits.Part of me wants to say, we’re in dire straits, not because K-12 educators have failed, but because technology and our children have networked, connected. And, now that the network is alive and hooked up, there’s no going back.

Conclusion: The Role of Educational Leaders in Implementing Web 2.0

So, with this in mind, I would focus on taking three simple actions:

1) Build the walled garden in your District, acknowledging the Organization’s need to control the means of publication even as you model their use at all levels to transform teaching, learning, and leadership.

2) Do everything you can to amplify students’ and staff’s voices through the use of Read/Write Web Tools, carefully safeguarding and protecting the online environments so that no one may find room for criticism. Forget about the traditional approach to using technology in schools. Focus on communication and connectivity.

3) Acknowledge defeat and accept that only the children will realize the full benefits of the work you are about…and, isn’t that what we’re working for anyways?

“Sometimes,” the tech director I chatted with at a recent conference shared with me, “I feel like I’m one of the adults in the Emperor’s New Clothes book (Read it online). I just found out we’re going to implement an ILS at the middle school level.” This comment brought to my attention a disturbing shift in the approaches technologists are being forced to take to prepare students for No Child Left Behind accountability measures.

As Richard Elmore points out in his article in Educational Leadership (November, 2003), “When we bear down on testing without the reciprocal supply of capacity. . .schools search for short-term solutions–test preparation–rather than longer-term, more powerful solutions, such as curriculum-focused professional development.” It is this push that drives some central office administrators in public schools to turn to a sleek, short-term success solution like integrated learning systems (ILS).

ILS Selection Process 1. Form a team comprised of the participants—teachers, community members, administrators, students (Hill, 1993). 2. Have teachers select the software and ILS. Once selected, the system should be integrated into the local curriculum by the appropriate district curriculum staff. This role should not be usurped by computer teachers or the district computer coordinator or director (Wiberg, March 1992). 3. Using your district curriculum as a baseline, look at the ILS curriculum to see how it matches your curriculum (Mageau, 1992). 4. Use the rubric available at http://www.mguhlin.net/portfolio/writings/2002/ilses.html

Many articles regarding integrated learning system alternate between praise and disdain. The fact is while integrated learning systems hold great potential for impacting test scores over the short-term—such as a year–in the long term they are not as effective. But, for central office, short-term gains in student achievement are worth the $50,000 per ILS campus implementation, not to mention the cost of a networkable computer lab with district aggregation capabilities (an estimated $20,000).Campus administrators and teachers find themselves in an awkward situation—they know the research does not support integrated learning systems, but they are forced to implement a solution that just does not work well for most students (Becker, 1992). Some other reasons why ILSes do not prepare students for a world that requires ill-structured problem-solving:

The ILS won’t work if you use it for less than 3 times a week and just leave it to “get on with things on its own.” (Ian Hedley, Carter Community School, ILS Coordinator).

ILS successful results—often self-reported or by a subsidized researcher–relate to how they were publicized. Studies in reports from the vendor all show substantial positive effect sizes. Those from independent sources show modest or negligible effects (Bracey, 1991).

The ILS can teach routine skills but they cannot teacher higher order thinking skills or conceptual thinking. Students using an ILS for more than a term had become less enthusiastic about the system (White, 1993).

As a bilingual teacher who witnessed integrated learning systems and their lack of efficacy in the famous Edgewood ISD, I am alarmed at how often students in at-risk situations are forced to use integrated learning systems of some sort. It is frightening to consider a return to these methods of “improving” student achievement. As it states in the book Towards Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education, economically disadvantaged students “learn to do what the computer tells them, while affluent students, learn to tell the computer what to do” (Solomon, Allen, Resta, 2003). It is clear that my children will learn to tell the computer what to do, while students in ILS-using school districts will be told what to do, perpetuating the cycle of passivity and lower-order thinking.

IMPLEMENTING TOP-DOWN INITIATIVES SUCCESSFULLYDespite Becker’s key research, some are still ignorant. Yet, what do you do if you are the technology director responsible for implementing an integrated learning system? Do you follow orders, remaining quiet, or resign in protest? This article does not address selection of ILSes—except as an aside—since implementation of ILSes is usually a top-down decision. Of course, you can always tell the emperor—represented by central office administration and/or school board—that his clothes are missing.

ILS BEST PRACTICESAs an administrator, it is your job to do what the superintendent and school board say. ILS research does show that ideal implementation can result in short-term gains. It is important that you know what to do. So, what are best practices for ILSes? This short article will get you on the right track. The information in this article is based on interviews and an intensive review of the research regarding integrated learning systems, only some of which is shared here. You can find the references online—with research excerpts—at http://www.mguhlin.net/portfolio/writings/2002/ilses.html

STEP 1: HIRE A COMPETENT, CAMPUS-LEVEL LAB MANAGER.Integrated learning systems are often poorly implemented. Despite the best intentions of the company, and its professional development facilitators, top-down administrators are looking for a teacher-less, “thinking adult”-free lab environment. After a district spends so much money on an ILS, it seems nonsensical to spend more money on a lab manager and professional development. We know that computers cannot teach children to apply what they learn to real life problems (NCREL, 2002). Also, most teachers need a support person who is the in-house integrated learning system expert. These persons should be teachers who are knowledgeable about the curriculum and technical aspects of the system (Sherry, 1992).

In an interview with a campus administrator and lab manager where an ILS had been successfully implemented—that is, raised test scores for the first two years–the lab manager states that his responsibilities include the following on a daily basis. Note the percent of time spent each day on the responsibilities identified below:÷ Technical Support and system administration (70%)÷ Assisting teachers with implementation of the program (20%)÷ Documenting and reporting progress (5%)÷ Teaching students to use the ILS (5%)

According to the lab manager for this large school district campus, “The lab manager is critical to the implementation of the ILS. Teachers would not be able to do what I do. There is a little bit of technical background on how to manage the system. I can see a problem and trouble-shoot the issues.” He goes on to state that teachers’ first assumption. Common problems encountered include the following: 1) Computer might lock-up; 2) Computer will have problems with network settings; and 3) Lose icon/shortcut to the ILS and it has to be recreated. While professional development could be done for all teachers in an ILS implementation, a lab manager provides on the spot access to a technical problem-solver. Indeed, one might ask whether the lab manager was the student refining his/her higher order thinking skills.The lab manager also works to print out the reports and worksheets as requested by staff. S/he is able to provide necessary in-house support for teachers (Smith, 2002).

STEP 2: PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING FOR TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS.Hill (1993) states that it is important to provide comprehensive training for teachers and administrators on the ILS. This training should begin prior to its arrival and be done by the ILS consultants. In this way, Hill writes, the district can avoid the problem resulting from the lack of teacher support. This point in the research was supported by the interview with the campus administrator. He stated that “Prior to the implementation, we identified a focus population to be targeted based on interim testing and TAKS results. Teachers of those populations, the instructional coordinator and lab manager, were given one full day of training prior to the start of the program. Other staff were given a half day informational training.”

Key components of the training should include time for teachers to preview lessons. Teachers should be given additional in-school time specifically for previewing ILS lessons. The curriculum in an ILS is extensive and they cannot be taken home like other materials. A final suggestion is that teachers should have access to the ILS lab during after-school or weekend hours (Sherry, 1992).

STEP 3: GET TEACHERS TO GO TO THE LAB WITH THEIR STUDENTS AND CIRCULATE.The benefits of having a teacher in the lab while students work on the ILS cannot be emphasized enough. Teachers are able to take advantage of “teachable moments,” relate how they are doing in the ILS curriculum to classroom learning. As the campus administrator shares, “Teachers can see where the students are at and try to evaluate what is going on.” This is supported by NCREL (1996) research that states that “Efforts must be made to facilitate students’ transfer of knowledge to other domains of experience.” Even though students may learn isolated skills and tools, it will be difficult for them to see how the various skills fit together to solve problems.

STEP 4: ENSURE THAT HARDWARE AND NETWORK IS IN PLACE.No matter how wonderful the ILS curriculum, if the hardware is not in place, the $50,000 software investment is wasted. It is important that the hardware and network be able to support the ILS implementation. Hardware can be anything from routers/switches to the requisite headphones with microphone included. Without the former, connectivity is an impossibility. Without the latter, students cannot take advantage of the ILS’s multimedia capabilities.

While there are many issues to consider when selecting and implementing an Integrated Learning System—not the least of which is “Why abandon technology applications and problem-based learning for such a poor approach?”—these 4 points are critical to successful implementation. There are profound financial implications for each of these steps that should be considered PRIOR to undertaking an ILS implementation.

As Becker (1992) writes in his review of 100 ILS studies, there is little evidence of ILS impact on student achievement. Where differences were found between the achievement of ILS users and comparable non-users, Becker concluded they were too small to have any educational significance.

In this time of economic hardship, sticking to the principles we hold dear can be difficult. Perhaps, rather than remaining quiet, we can share the research with superintendents and principals that drill-n-kill has little place in the technology applications:TEKS classroom. Maybe then, the grown-ups will be unafraid to proclaim the emperor’s lack of clothing on behalf of the children we serve.

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Sony allegedly violated the FTC’s COPPA Rule, and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by knowingly collecting personal information from at least 30,000 underage children on 196 of the company’s interactive music fan sites without first obtaining parental consent. Sony collected this information despite representations in its privacy policy that users who indicated they were under age 13 would be restricted from participating in the company’s web page activities.

In addition to the $1 million penalty, the consent decree requires Sony to delete all personal information collected and maintained in violation of COPPA, and link to certain FTC consumer education materials for the next five years.Source: COSN Member Bulletin 12/15/2008

From the actual report:

Many of these sites also enable children to create personal fan pages, review artists’ albums, upload photos or videos, post comments on message boards and in online forums, and engage in private messaging. In this way, children were able to interact with Sony Music fans of all ages, including adults.

“Sites with social networking features, like any Web sites, need to get parental consent before collecting kids’ personal information,” said FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic. “Sony Music is paying the penalty for falling down on its COPPA obligations.”

Tough luck for college students…the RIAA runs out of money, decides to quit pursuing everyone and goes after the kids:

Marking a shift in its efforts to clamp down on illegal file sharing, the group representing the U.S. music industry says it will only bring lawsuits against college students who are the most egregious violators of music copyrights–but higher-education officials still will be expected to block students’ internet access if they use campus networks illegally.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Dec. 19 said it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyrights and instead will work with schools and other internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings against file sharing…Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits have settled, on average for around $3,500.

The RIAA’s legal costs, in the meantime, reportedly have exceeded the settlement money it brought in.Source: eSchoolNews

Someone was kind enough to write this message about this online version of a print article I wrote for TechEdge magazine:

I found your wonderful article: “Digital Storytelling with VoiceThread” on your… website…I am currently working on a book for Corwin Press about the use of Web 2.0 technologies for ESL students and was wondering if I could use your article (with some edits) for the book? You would be credited, of course, for the contribution.

I look forward to hearing from you… THANKS!

and so, here it is….

“What if creating, sharing, and getting feedback,” I asked, “on your digital stories was free, easy, and didn’t require loading software on your computer?” Technology Applications:TEKS (TA:TEKS) teachers attending an August workshop on middle technology applications were some of the first teachers to find out in my school district. These teachers had a chance to see and use online digital storytelling tools. We threw out the curriculum, not because it wasn’t good, but because it’s important to find ways that engage our children using multiple forms of media–text, audio, video, etc. However, finding the right tools to use on older computers–ranging from Windows 98 to Windows XP–is a significant obstacles.

Even though you can find digital storytelling–or creation–tools for every platform, it’s important to revisit old questions. For example, here are some of the no-cost tools that folks are using for digital storytelling on various computers:

This is a program that are costs nothing and is designed for folks who want to create photo/video slideshows easily and upload to free video hosts. (eg. YouTube) to share it with friends and family. However, educators can use it to create video files.

Windows XP: MS PhotoStory or MS MovieMaker

Both of these programs come loaded on your Windows XP computer, but if not, you can download and install it provided you have the authority to do so.

Mac OS X: iMovie

This is the classic digital storytelling tool, very easy to use and powerful.

But I have found that there are always problems. For example, PhotoStory uses a proprietary format for the movies it creates (WMV files) that have to be converted to another format for sharing on the Web. Moviemaker tends to crash frequently, and iMovie…well, two examples is enough, isn’t it? What if you could find other, web-based tools that could get the job done?

New Answers to Old Questions

In the first installment of this series on Digital Storytelling (read the series here), I asked a few questions. In re-reading those questions, the following struck a chord. I realized that the answers to these questions had changed dramatically in the few months since the first installment on digital storytelling had appeared. The questions were as follows:

How can I use Read/Write Web technologies (like blogs and podcasts) to enhance the storytelling experience and story-swapping?

What can I do to connect with a larger community of storytellers outside my classroom and district?

Using Read/Write Web Technologies

Usually, when one refers to the Read/Write Web, they are talking about the ability of people to communicate, collaborate, and share that process online. In my school district, my team and I are modelling the use of a variety of tools to share digital stories online, including blogs, podcasts, wikis, and Moodle.

These are powerful tools that enable us–and students, whether children or adult learners–to quickly publish digital stories created with iMovie (Mac), PhotoStory/Moviemaker (Windows) with others. As powerful as these tools are, they involve these steps:

Learn to use the software (e.g. iMovie, PhotoStory)

Learn the digital storytelling process

Create the digital story

Convert the digital story into a movie format usable on the web (for example, using the free video converter–Format Factory (http://formatoz.com)–to convert a PhotoStory WMV into an MP4 video format that others can view via the Web regardless of their operating system).

Publish the video of the digital story online

Share the location of the digital story with others.

New tools that have become available recently simplify this process tremendously. Furthermore, these tools allow us to answer the second question, What can I do to connect with a larger community of storytellers outside my classroom and district?

Enhancing Story-Swapping

“There are so many different ways lives work out, so many stories,” shares Sean Stewart, “and every one of them is precious: full of joy and heartbreak, and a fair amount of situation comedy.” How can we communicate those stories with a larger audience? Publishing them via a blog is one way that invites written comments, but we already know that many of our children are swapping stories online via YouTube. Whether we like the content of the stories they swap is one thing, but these children are becoming familiar with the language of images and sound. So, with that in mind, how can we enhance story swapping in such a way that we take advantage of this media-rich language our children are using online?

There are many tools available online that teachers can use to accomplish this. Once you become aware of these new tools, the “old” steps are shortened. Instead, you might take the same steps that Alan Levine suggests:

Outline a story idea that can be created in a Read/Write Web tool using images, audio, and/or video.

Find a Read/Write Web tool where you can create the story quickly

Share your example and observations on the value of the tool

Levine lists over 50 different tools you can use on his web site. You can find the web site at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools. Since we lack unlimited pages of the Web, we’re going to focus on one tool you can use immediately.

Story Tool: VoiceThread

The power of VoiceThread is that it can be used regardless of what type of computer you have since it is web-based. VoiceThread describes itself in this way:

A VoiceThread allows every child in a class to record audio commentary about the ideas and experiences that are important to them. Whether an event, a project, or a milestone, children can tell their story in their own voice, and then share it with the world.

For teachers, VoiceThreads offer a single vessel to capture and then share all the diverse personalities of an entire class. You will hear the pride and excitement in their voices as the students “publish” their work. A VoiceThread can be managed with little effort, creating an heirloom that can be shared by students, parents, and educators alike.

Moderated Comments

After you manage to get the Internet Security Officer in your District to agree that VoiceThread is a benign digital tool usable in the K-12 classroom, you will want to point out that communications are moderated.

One of the key components of VoiceThread is the possibility of inviting moderated audio, or written, commentary on the work created. Imagine that. Other children can leave audio or text comments on a piece of digital work, and you, as their teacher, can choose to allow it or not. It is is incredible that children can interact with each other via the Web through the sound of their voice. How powerful is that as a way to create a sense of audience?

Variety of Uses

There are many more VoiceThreads available online, spanning a variety of media genres including poems, self-portraits, lectures, book reviews, multimedia presentations, and digital stories. Why not add your students’ work to the mix?

For example, consider the following projects (with more being added every day):

Poem book: In this activity, participants share their favorite poems to create an audio poem book. Imagine your bilingual/ESL students creating their favorite poem book, adding their audio narration, and then sharing that online.

Great Book Stories: According to Wes Fryer (SpeedofCreativity.org), The idea is basic: Narrate five pictures to share why you love a specific book, and why other people should read it. If you’re interested in contributing, please check out the site and the guidelines. The password to edit the wiki is “share” without quotation marks.

Using Moodle in Technology Applications Classrooms: This was created by TA:TEKS teachers as a way to explore VoiceThread while at the same time share ideas about using Moodle, an online discussion forum and teaching tool in their classroom. Note that someone Allanah King, a New Zealand teacher was able to leave an audio comment on one of the “slides.”

Conclusion

“Digital storytelling begins,” says Joe Lambert, Co-Founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling, “with the notion that in the not [too] distant future, sharing one’s story through the multiple mediums of digital imagery, text, voice, sound, music, video and animation will be THE PRINCIPAL HOBBY OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLE.” As that world becomes more connected through the Internet, the importance of learning to use digital tools to share your ideas, your vision, your stories becomes all the more critical.

Given the choice of drill-n-practice or digital storytelling that is authentic, involves multiple media forms, which would your students select? I invite you to join the digital storytelling revolution, adding your voice to the mix.

Thanks to a tweet that caught my eye–more slaves now than ever before in history!!–I started reading this article. I encourage you to read it:

Standing in New York City, you are five hours away from being able to negotiate the sale, in broad daylight, of a healthy boy or girl. He or she can be used for anything, though sex and domestic labor are most common. Before you go, let’s be clear on what you are buying. A slave is a human being forced to work through fraud or threat of violence for no pay beyond subsistence. Agreed? Good.Source: A World Enslaved, Foreign Policy by E. Benjamin Skinner

Diigo.com has grown in popularity and yet, it contains several irksome features. These aren’t show-stoppers and I’m sure that the Diigo folks will eventually get to them. But one of the “features” of Diigo social bookmarking and annotation service that drive me crazy is the inability of users to delete their messages.

I don’t know about you, but I’m accustomed to keeping my email inbox down to zero or a handful of entries that just arrived. I manage to clean out my work email (several hundred emails there), and personal email gets cleaned out. It makes things easier to keep it all tidy…but I can’t do that in Diigo. 67 messages and counting–and I’m sure other Diigo users have more since I’ve occasionally left conversations that I was invited to but had no interest in participating in, whether it was lack of interest or nothing to contribute.

Wouldn’t it be a nice enhancement to drop in a checkbox next to the messages, including a DELETE ALL feature?

Earlier today, I received an email from a dear friend. I truly enjoyed seeing pictures of his family and all the activities they had engaged in for the 2008 school year. One piece of curiosity though was HOW he sent the emails out to friends and family–he used Filemaker Pro’s SMTP-It, a program I know he’d purchased many years ago and that I used extensively in years past. Here’s what the bottom of his email had:

This email was sent to you using a demo version of SMTPit–A FileMaker Pro plug-in developed by Comm-Unity Networking Systems (CNS). Disclaimer: CNS and SMTPit are in no way connected with the above email. SMTPit is simply a program that sends out email. CNS is not responsible for any unwanted email sent to you using this software. For more information about SMTPit, visit us athttp://www.cnsplug-ins.com/

The SMTP-It takes your FMPRO database and turns it into a bulk email program. That is, it will send email out to everyone you designate. While it’s great if you have FMPRO and are willing to buy the plug-in (SMTP-It), it’s not all that great for convenience (IMHO). Of course, my experience is about 6 years old, so take that with a grain of salt. In that time, I’ve discovered two bulk emailers that I would encourage anyone that has to spam folks to use.

I use the first one listed below almost exclusively because it is so good and easy to use on Windows (it runs in WINE on UbuntuLinux and, of course, in virtual Windows on a Mac). It’s not resource intensive.

FairLogic’s WorldCast: Available for free to non-profit educational institutions in Windows only version, this is a versatile mass emailer. Registration does not result—as I once feared—in more junk email and the free registration code arrived instantly upon my emailed request.

FairLogic describes its product—accurately—as being able to send bulk email, validate email addresses as to whether they work or not, send emails to huge recipient lists imported from dBase tables, text and comma-delimited values and address books from popular email programs (e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm Desktop). It can also import many fields—no limit yet that I’ve discovered—and include the fields in mail merge format within the body of the email. It can also set itself up as its own SMTP server, which is a powerful feature.

It is an excellent bulk emailer and easy to use with built-in wizards. What’s more, it can send HTML, or web page, emails without problems. Of course, the main benefit is that it is the only free bulk emailer this author has encountered. It is available online at http://www.fairlogic.com

MaxProg’s MacBulk Mailer: Available for Macintosh and Windows at a cost of $39.90, this is a powerful bulk emailer. The Pro version not only boasts the features of FairLogic’s WorldCast as well but also support for MySQL, direct emailing from Filemaker Pro databases, and conditional message content based on who it is your writing to. I highly recommend this Mailer for Macintosh users. The program is available for download and/or purchase at http://www.maxprog.com/MaxBulk.html

If you know of any other bulk email tools–that are no-cost, or FOSS–please let me know! I’ve seen several attempts in each category but none that match the two above.

Last night, I finally had a free moment–amidst watching movies with family–to try installing UbuntuEee on an Asus Eee I’d brought home from work for just that purpose. UbuntuEee looks like a great solution to run on the Asus Eee but I ran into a few problems…mainly, space.

I had a 2 gig SD card that I tried installing Ubuntu to without success. This was my backup plan since installing UbuntuEee to the AsusEee–even after deleting the main partition–didn’t work. My guess is that I’ll probably have to spend some time reading the forums and invest in a 4 gig or great SD card so that I can install UbuntuEee on it.

In the meantime, I have a “dead” Asus Eee which I’ll have to reload with something from somewhere.

Staring at the blank screen at the end of Xmas day, I found myself fighting a realization. New Year’s Resolution time is coming…what will I commit to? What do I really want to commit to (in the context of this blog)? The answer is one I feel I should be sad about but I’m not. I don’t want to commit to anything. When I think about the lack of purpose for this blog, I realize that I honestly do not want to commit to writing about one topic, one idea and revisiting it in all its permutations.

The realization that I’m fighting? Let’s say that this piece of advice is simultaneously appealing and repulsive at the same time:

Narrow the focus. “…[M]edia companies need to invest more money in their premium content—editorial that is unavailable elsewhere but that is highly valued by readers. Go deep, not wide.”

It is that idea of narrowing focus of the blog that is painful. Tom Hoffman (TuttleSVC) shared that as one of the problems for Around the Corner–a lack of focus, or purpose. And, regrettably, he is right. This blog is all over the place. Yet, with so many subscribers and readers, obviously something is worth reading. And, yet, the magic feels like it’s gone. I’m not writing about Web 2.0 that much anymore. It’s strange but I feel a real lack of desire to write about Web 2.0 and how it’s going to change the education world. While I acknowledge the valuable writing and pontificating of the edublogosphere, I increasingly find it to be yada-yada-yada.Source: David Armano’s The Paradox of Please as cited in Focus or Fail, DaveFleet.com

A challenge for me has been to dig deeper and understand more. I’m not writing to please anyone but myself. The blog goes where my interests are, flitting around from topic to topic. It was, I thought, a lot of fun to be interested in many topics, ideas, and sharing them. The blog is a notebook for what I’m interested in, but am I interested in things that will make a difference in the long run? Do I even want to be interested in something that will bring about change in the long run, especially in a blog?

It’s this fundamental conflict with having subscribers and readers…sure, I know you’re out there, and I like knowing you’re reading but I also don’t want to be moved by you to write about what you like…if I fail to write about what *I* like, you may not read. If I write about what you want to read, I won’t want to write or read.

Some of the topics I don’t want to write about anymore, unless I’m talking to people who’ve never heard of this before (it’s boring to keep revisiting the subject):

Read/Write Web and Publish at Will

Blogging and podcasting

How RWW is going to transform education (I don’t think it is…it will transform how we each communicate, collaborate but not education).

What do I want to write about? It’s easy to write about techie stuff…you’re simply sharing the latest techie thing (e.g. UbuntuLinux Intrepid…wait long enough and you’ll have a whole other update to write about). You know what? In the end, I’m probably not going to change a thing. This blog continues to be about what lies around the corner of my interest. I suppose I’ll keep writing about everything that catches my eye. I will definitely fail the narrow your focus test.

I can only hope that what I’m interested in is valuable to others reading. I just wish I could align our interests better. What is it that I’m interested in that will just rock your world? That way, we’d both be excited about the same things and the rest of the world would fade away…or drop by to watch us catch on fire.

Update 12/27/2008: I love this quote that Crossroad Dispatches shared…her post is inspiring, both by what she wrote and how she wrote it. Even though she shares that this quote is cliche, it is the first time I’ve seen it:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”– Howard Thurman

Evelyn Rodriguez at Crossroad Dispatches has a lot to say. Worth a read!

Skimming 8 million blog entries, I’m naturally stumbling across some nifty stuff that I have to make note of and, well, share…here goes:

Feedflix – find out if you’re getting your money’s worth with Netflix. You login to Netflix via Feedflix and it will print graphs and stuff to show your usage stats.

Ultimate Portable PC Troubleshooting Guide – what a great article that outlines a list of programs to use for a variety of problems you’ll be sure to encounter when working on someone else’s (e.g. your brother-in-law) Windows computer (uh, the best solution is reformat and load UbuntuLinux).

Shorty – Create your own domain-name based short urls by installing Shorty on your server…it’s like having TinyURL.com installed on your own server.

FilePhile – works like a private peer to peer network to share large files with friends. It’s Java based so it works on any platform. Allows for Secure Unlimited File Transfers, Any Computer, Any File, Any Size, Anywhere With Professional Grade Encryption (why not create a truecrypt container and share that and not have to worry about PG encryption?).

Back in October, 2008, a TEA official shared a lesson about the nature of public information. I thought it was right on target then, and, as you’ll see further down, it continues to be on target. It’s an important lesson that ALL of us need to learn, from administrators to teachers and anyone who lives in these times. Transparency is important…

“Transparency”: Nothing to hide

“Transparent: free from pretense or deceit; readily understood; characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices” (Meriam-Webster.com)

The TEA official below–Anita Givens–shared a lesson she’d learned and I hope you find that lesson as memorable as I did.

One thing I will share with you that is important for us…and I learned this lesson the hard way…a long time ago, I could talk in groups because what was said in this room stayed in this room. [when] technology made it possible that what was said would not stay in this room so I don’t say it anymore.

I tell all our new staff…anything you say or do as a TEA employee has to be OK to be on the front page of the Austin-American Statesman or the London Times. As long as it is OK to appear in those publications, and now on the world wide web. anybody, anywhere to see or hear. If you’re uncomfortable with what you say or do, don’t say it or don’t do it. That’s the mantra we have to live by because we are state public officials.Read Source

This reminds me of Seth Godin’s points in Meatball Sundae. For anyone in a public arena, you have to fundamentally change your approach. One of the tough moments in Godin’s book is this section quoted below. I don’t know why but every time I read it, I get chills…and I seldom get chills when reading Stephen King but Godin, well, that’s something different.

All I’m arguing for is synchronization. Don’t use the tactics of one paradigm and the strategies of another and hope that you’ll get the best of both. You won’t. After just a few minutes of conversation…one person realized, “So, if we embrace this approach, we don’t have to just change our Web site–we’re going to have to change everything about our organization. Our mission, our structure, our decision making….” Exactly.[Emphasis mine]Source: Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae

The scary part about this is that this paragraph makes it seem like it’s a choice to change. But it isn’t a choice over time…if an organization fails to change, there is going to be increasing conflict between the way the organization works and the culture around it. That’s why we’re watching newspapers die in the face of the bloggers and the Internet. And, if you don’t accept the lesson that you’re always on parade–would Google publish a picture of your front yard if you were standing in it? Maybe not yet…but someday?–it can have catastrophic consequences…sort of like a car on a road under construction where the the drop-off to the shoulder is a foot high.

What IS the fundamental mission of an organization like a state education agency? Is such an organization TOO big to remember what its mission is and then to transform and redefine “what they actually do to add value?”

As an educator, one of the things I look forward to is information sharing…open and transparent access. If I were working in an organization like a state education agency, it wouldn’t be enough to know that the microphone was always on. It’s not enough to realize that there are some things you share and some you don’t–is it wrong to think, you are open and transparent about everything in education?

Consider how this conversation–one that is frank, clearly a “fierce conversation” about the realities of state education agency–is made available on the Web, a news scoop if there ever was one. Yet, if these issues were being discussed aloud, shared openly, would they even exist?

A couple of high-ranking Texas Education Agency officials forgot about a valuable reminder recently: Watch what you say in the presence of a microphone.

The State Board of Education committee on instruction had just adjourned when TEA Deputy Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds and Gina Day, a deputy associate commissioner, began chatting candidly about the State Center for Early Childhood Development. The two education officials were unaware that their 7-minute chat was being broadcast live via the Internet.

The two officials were discussing problems with the State Center, which runs the state’s Pre Kindergarten program.

The Texas Education Agency removed the audio from its website last week after learning that the private discussion involving Reynolds and Day was part of the broadcast.Read More

As edubloggers know, removing a blog post or audio is NOT recommended. What if TEA had taken a different approach to this audio? What if they had written in their blog and shared MORE information on the thoughts of those high-ranking officials and what they were doing to fix the problems?

Note: Sharing her unique perspect on Second Life, Malinda McCormick is guest blogging on Around the Corner for a few weeks, if not longer! This entry–originally published 05/07/2008 is her introduction–is entitled My Life in a Box: A Virtual Field Report from Joie Despres.

A quick intro and then to get on with it; first, thanks Miguel for inviting me to guest blog my experiences to your audience regarding my walk through the virtual world of Second Life (SL). In real life (RL) he knows me as Malinda McCormick, Director of School Services at KLRN public television in San Antonio. Miguel and I have known each other in RL for as long as I’ve been involved in SL, since July of 2007. Both the RL and SL journeys for me since then have been very meaningful in my work and collaborations. And both my RL and SL life happen simultaneously and are interdependent.

Previous to July, if you would have told me this was going to be the “look and feel” of my work and life, I would have given you the tilted head, sideways glance that, I am sure; you are quite likely giving me now as I introduce you to these virtual matters.

My Life in a Box aptly describes the long history of using computers and television in my home and work. I think we can all relate to this. In my case, my husband and I got to the point, in our evenings after work and dinner where we would ask each other, “What box are you going to use tonight?” Referring of course to whether we meant the computer or TV. After a while, in an effort to avoid this question, we just got more boxes. We sit next to or near each other in our independent uses of these tools and share the media experiences with each other and our children.

In RL, I am responsible for providing workshops and conferences for educational technology; specifically on KLRN Connect/Discoverystreaming in the south Texas region. I promote PBS TeacherLine, professional development courses for Texas educators. I also provide content to educators on our PBS programming through websites, emails, and a monthly e-newsletter.

In SL, I own a home on Jokaydia Island, run by education specialist, Jo Kay from Wollongong, Australia. I docent at ISTE Island greeting new educators to SL and I work as a Discovery Educator Network Guide in Second Life, helping others with Discovery Education and SL tools alike. I also host and/or attend social events and professional development meetings.

I network with a great group of education professionals in SL on an ongoing basis. I have many friends and meaningful relationships with people from around the world whom I’ve never met in RL and may never have the chance. This is my life in a box and Miguel has asked me to open this dialog with you on going virtual and what it means for education.

So right out of the box, let me tell you the funny story of how Miguel questioned me one day early on in our meeting, about what I thought of Web 2.0 (the read/write web). I gave him the sideways glance and thought to myself “what is he talking about?” I hadn’t classified web generations yet in my mind but what was even worse was I had already shifted gears into web 3.0. So naturally I just tossed back to him, “What do you know about Second Life?” And there we stood, staring blankly at each other. He has taken me on the journey, through his blog and mentoring, about all things web 2.0 and now I will share with you and him the wonderland known as the metaverse.

Stayed tuned for my weekly postings on Mondays. It is like falling down the rabbit hole.

I am pictured here in a virtual room designed by Second Life magician, Tuna Oddfellow. He and his beautiful assistant put on free shows in SL every Monday. Peggy Sheehy, Ramapo Islands on the Teen Grid, visited his parcel to talk with him about how to help her middle school students get “out the box” in their creative process of building in Second Life.

One of the things I disliked about Thingamablog was the complete inability to invite guest bloggers to post on their own. Although I often wished I could return the favor to fellow bloggers who had invited me to write on their site or as a part of a group blog, I found myself having to get them to email me their entry, I’d copy-n-paste it into Thinga and then spend some time formatting it and relinking it…a pain.

However, Blogger enables me to have guest bloggers and I’ve decided to invite a few folks to guest blog when fancy strikes them. The list appears above, but I thought I’d better link to them first…some invited first-wave bloggers include:

If you’re interested in guest blogging, please let me know! I’d be happy to have you on board and get you started…please don’t email me, however, if you’re a non-blogging vendor and just want to share about how great your product is!

I certainly do not think so. The only mildly religious part is the label of X-mas a Scott pointed out. If I remember right, the X is supposed to be a substitute for Christ in a religious way, like the PX or whatever that I remember learning about in Catholic school. But, how many kids are going to know that?

It is my opinion that the word Christmas is not out of bounds. I think that is where I differ with Scott and Jon. The issue is not whether or not it has religious origins, it certainly does, but instead the question is whether it is become so common in usage that it has lost much of its religious significance and is just a broad societal term now. You can answer that question for yourself. As I reflected on why Scott, Jon and I differed on this, it occurred to me that we grew up in different parts of the country and that what we consider religious v. societal may be different in those areas. That’s not really an good answer, but I think it does have some impact on what we consider mainstream.

So, if Christmas is not out of bounds, I don’t see X-mas being out of bounds either as it is a commonly used abbreviation.

But, that’s just my take on it Miguel. Your free to consult your school attorney and get their opinion for your district.

Regardless of how secularized it’s become, and regardless of certaingeographic regions’ predispositions, at its heart Christmas is a religiousholiday. As such, I don’t think public schools have any legal or ethicalbusiness formally wishing students, families, or employees ‘MerryChristmas.’ Nor should they be wishing anyone Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hannukah,or anything else. At best they can maybe wish all those things and more inan effort to be as inclusive as possible (of course this doesn’t address theconcerns of atheists). I’m guessing that Jon will concur…

We have a LOT of case law affirming public schools’ obligation to keepchurch and state separate. I don’t believe we have any case law affirmingpublic schools’ ability to favor one particular religious holiday overanother via its formal greetings. I think this is a loser in court.

So, there we go, a split decision. Could I–and any other school district–be hopeful and just say, “This is just TOO grey.” It’s a shame we don’t have a third lawyer (or even a 4th) to break the tie. It would be great to have Jon Becker and/or Pamela Parker (Texas Teacher Law) jump in on this!End Section Update

Original Entry Resumes:Two years later, the discussion comes alive again and an apt example comes to us from Texas.

We have two issues here. The first is the legal one. The second is one of inclusiveness. Justin, I think the Deer Park e-card violates both. If I’m a non-Christian student, family, or employee in that district, I’m guessing that I’m feeling pretty marginalized right now…

I will be up front and share that it is far easier to avoid this problem than it is to try and walk a fine line. Simply, it’s easier to just NOT do the card. . .I had no qualms about saying “No Xmas eCard” when asked by my team. Should I have had?

Let’s stay focused. A tech dept creates a nice Xmas card and puts it online for all district staff, emailing them all. Is that a violation of the Establishment Clause? Winter Break may very well be over by the time this issue gets resolved in the comments! Matt Tabor jumps in on the action:

Violations of the Establishment Clause are not to be taken lightly. We’ve got a unique setup here in the United States – though founded clearly on Judeo-Christian/Western principles, we aren’t a thuggish, iron-fisted theocracy that forces the minority to join the mission of the majority.

Some, however – and this includes the CASTLErs with this initiative – interpret the Establishment Clause as it relates to public schools to mean that the ‘freedom from’ is near absolute.

I described this particular contest as “glib, ideologically-driven tripe”…If you read the comments, you’ll see why the “Spot That Holiday Violation!” contest exhibits twice the zealotry they’re working so hard to point out.

And, to co-opt a fashionable education term, this contest facilitates that anti-Christmas zealotry.

I just wish Matt, Scott and Justin would come right out and give their recommendation.

Ok gentlemen, what’s your FINAL answer?

Is the Deer Park ISD Xmas card a violation of the Establishment Clause, yes or no?

Microsoft has given yet another reprieve to its seasoned Windows XP operating system. The cut off date for PC makers to obtain licenses for the software was 31 January 2009. But now Microsoft has put in place a scheme that will allow the hardware firms to get hold of XP licences until 30 May 2009.Source: BBC News 12/22/2008

UbuntuLinux is a better alternative…

Without much fanfare, developers of Ubuntu Linux have delivered the latest version of the open source operating system that scores higher than Windows Vista in performance testing, does a better job than Windows in making wireless connectivity easy and, overall, leaves fewer reasons to stick with Windows than any other previous release of Linux.

Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition, nicknamed “Intrepid Ibex,” provides so much functionality and ease of use, at zero cost of acquisition, that it is really impossible to ignore. For anyone or any business not tied to Microsoft legacy desktop applications, Ubuntu 8.10 may realistically be considered a smarter choice in many scenarios.

I’m currently running UbuntuLinux on a Dell Latitude D810 with great success…the integration of WINE makes running simple applications easy, and I haven’t run MS Office in more than a year. Docx and XLSx files are easily opened and worked with. I can even run my favorite Windows MySQL tool–SQLYog Community Edition for Windows–without problem.

I ran across your blog and I thought our website may be of interest – www.studio4learning.tv is a library of free middle & high school plus freshman year college tutorial videos. Over 1600 video clips on all core curriculum topics.

We’re looking for feedback from individual teachers & education technologists as well as whole schools on integrating the site into lesson plans, homework assignments, etc. Would love to hear your thoughts on the site and possibility of some sort of partnership with your university.

The site, although it features advertising, appears to offer helpful suggestions for test-taking (e.g. SAT). It’s definitely worth investigating more. Have you used this and what feedback would you offer?

Stephen’s Lighthouse highlights–thanks, since this was an article one of my team shared with me and said, “This is all about what you’ve been talking about,”–this quote from Gartner Group’s William Rust in eSchoolNews:

“According to William Rust, research director for the IT research and consulting firm Gartner, there is a new digital divide occurring in schools. Whereas this divide used to refer to whether or not students had access to technology, now it concerns whether schools are using technology effectively to achieve results.”

Rust goes on to identify 4 tech trends but I found myself disappointed by the list. There’s no denying that the list is important but it doesn’t quite live up to the idea of bridging the “new digital divide.” But, can any conversation?

accountability,

the changing nature of learners,

the accessibility of technology, and

the “internal and external demands” that are now placed on ed-tech executives.”

So, big deal. Here’s what I get out of these identified trends:

Accountability – NCLB, Adequate Yearly Progress keep schools focused on high stakes test strategies. The new digital divide simply means we don’t have time to do anything else but prep students to do well on those tests…that includes learning to think creatively while using technology.

Changing nature of Learners – While children may be processing information and ideas in a variety of media formats, it’s clear that since they can’t pass the tests, these media processing skills are a moot point…irrelevant to what happens in the classroom. If they are irrelevant, it is the equivalent of a child having a high sports aptitude but low academics. Some day, the former may overcome the latter but only for a small percentage of learners.

Accessibility of Technology – So what? As technology becomes ubiquitous, it floods every setting, including classrooms. You can buy a bat and ball anywhere but that doesn’t mean you’ll use it in the classroom to learn the parabola of a ball’s flight through the air (I’m bad in math, is this a good example? If not, give me another one…feed my sense of entitlement as a ubiquitous tech user).

Internal and External Demands – I don’t remember what this was about. I’ll have to go re-read the article.

I was intrigued by this comment by Danny Brown about the distinction between journalists and bloggers:

…a journalist’s job is to report facts – a blogger’s “job” is to offer a personal view of these facts, and hopefully open up conversation.

Two different approaches that probably cater to two different audiences.Source: Comment made to the post linked below

I’m grateful to Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) for sending along this post about what bloggers can learn from journalists. However, the more I read and reflect on this entry, the more I realize that it is journalists who will need to learn from bloggers. Anita Bruzzese makes these points:

It takes time to gain trust.

You are what you write.

Use attribution.

Step away from the computer

Look for the news peg.

Be consistent

Precision is key

Just get on with it.

Rewrite.

Understand you’re creating history.

As powerful as these points are–especially when you read the convincing rationales that follow each–I’m not convinced. As a blogger, this list is boiled down to:

Share the truth and your perception of it–but distinguish between the two.

Be transparent about your motivations and expectations.

Share your learning like beads on a string

Use linktribution

Revise and publish that as a new blog entry or clearly labelled update.

Don’t wait for the opportune time to write, share more now.

What you write endures forever.

It’s not as polished a list as Anita’s and she’s probably laughing, but that’s all the time I’m going to spend on this. Perhaps, it’s better to consider Jeff Jarvis’ approach to a topic using the new tools.

Instead, I want a page, a site, a thing that is created, curated, edited, and discussed. It’s a blog that treats a topic as an ongoing and cumulative process of learning, digging, correcting, asking, answering. It’s also a wiki that keeps a snapshot of the latest knowledge and background. It’s an aggregator that provides annotated links to experts, coverage, opinion, perspective, source material. It’s a discussion that doesn’t just blather but that tries to accomplish something (an extension of an article like this one that asks what options there are to bailout a bailout). It’s collaborative and distributed and open but organized.

Wes Fryer (SpeedofCreativity.org) moved our Voicethread Reneges? conversation from the comments to the VoiceThread Ning. This move offers a fresh start and seeks to engage the Voicethread community at large in how to best use what features will endure the adjustment of the free Educator Voicethread account.

Now that simultaneous logins feature is gone, the question is, will there ever be a feature available on the free Educator VT account that allows for students to login to work through a teacher’s account?

Unfortunately, the only option remaining to teachers may be to subscribe to Ed.VT…unless this conversation can tease out other possible options.

Wes writes:

VoiceThread has recently announced that free accounts will not be permitted to have simultaneous logins open at the same time. Miguel Guhlin blogged about this last week, and got a good conversation going– others are also concerned about the implications of this for classroom teachers using a single VoiceThread account for multiple students.

Wes, I have to agree with Lee–there is confusion about the terms. I had never heard of identities until sometime in the last 2 weeks, when teachers I know were asking for help. Then, I read Colette’s post about the change in multiple simultaneous logins.

This is a feature that IS used, but VT has chosen to discontinue it citing security concerns and sharing that it just isn’t the best way to use VT. However, best practice or no, “safe” or not, it was a feature that teachers exploited. That feature was available for free and to get similar functionality, teachers will now have to pay for Ed.VT. Was VT transparent in their dropping of a free feature that forces free VT education account owners to their commercial service?

Steve Muth, owner of VT, interpreted the initial blog entry that asked that question as innuendo (which was not the intent of the author). Steve may have felt that it challenged his integrity because it suggested the possibility that VT had used security, best practices as an excuse to remove a feature that was useful to some free VT educator account users. The blog entry asked, “Voicethread Reneges?” was this intentional or inadvertent? Steve sought to ensure that users understood this was inadvertent consequence of a positive move.

Another concern is that VT didn’t do enough–except for an email and a blog entry–to notify users of the change.

In short, there was a lot of smoke in the comments but no real heat or fire. VoiceThread continues to offer an excellent service but users of simultaneous logins will have to consider other ways of logging students in. And, the heart of the conversation is exactly how this change impacts teachers and students.

Brenda–in the comments–points out that “I would like it if VT would let us sign kids up using the gmail hack or mrsmuench+student1@gmail.com. Then each student could have their own account but still not have an email address.” Steve denies this as a workable solution because it doesn’t meet the security concerns.

The question is, will there ever be a feature available on the free Educator VT account that allows for students to login to work through a teacher’s account? It’s clear that some teachers definitely want this but lack the funding to get Ed.VT in their situation.

So, the question to be answered now isn’t whether VoiceThread Reneged? by removing a feature from the free education accounts it granted to educators, but what teachers can actually do with their students using Voicethread now that this feature is gone?

Fortunately, I never encouraged the use of simultaneous logins in my free, CC-SA-NC-Attrib print handout. But what will teachers who used it do now?